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THE ROCK OF AGES; 

OB 

SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY 

TO THE ONE ETEEML GODHEAD 


THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND 
OF THE HOLY GHOST. 


EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH, M.A. 


INCUMBENT OF CHRIST* 'cHUKCH, HAMPSTEAD. 


WITH AN 

INTRODUCTION 

By the Rev. f'. D. HUNTINGTON, D.D. 

LATS PREACHER TO THE UNIVERSITY AND PLUMMER PROFESSOR OP CHRISTIAN MORALS 
IN HARVARD COLLEGE. RECTOR OP EMMANUEL CHURCH, BOSTON. 


“ Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 

1 Cor. ii. 13. 


BOSTON: 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

¥ 


28 CORNHILL. 
1860 . 


-^\\\ 


I 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
E. P. Dutton and Company, 

the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


<3ift 

B » fern Smith 



RIVERSIDE, Cambridge: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
n. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 




TO 

CjiB Unitarians nf (fnglani, 

AND TO ANY OTHERS WHO CONFESS OR CONCEAL DOUBTS 
REGARDING THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH, 

THIS TREATISE, 

ACCOMPANIED WITH MANY PRAYERS, 

IS, IN ALL HUMILITY, ADDRESSED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



I 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction 7-30 

Preface 31-34 

Chapter I. — Introduction. Preparation of heart. Our 

position before God 35-43 


Chapter II. — That Scripture, in the Old and the New 
Testament alike, detaches our ultimate confidence 
from man the creature, and attaches it to God the 
Creator ; — 

by contrasting the sinfulness and feebleness of 
mortal man with the goodness and omnipo- 
tence of the Eternal Jehovah : 
by direct prohibition and precept : 

by exhibiting the holy Jealousy of God 44-51 

Chapter III. — That Scripture, in the Old and the New 
Testament alike, requires us to repose our ultimate 
confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ: 

as One who is distinct from the Father : 
as One to whom all the attributes of essential 
Deity are ascribed ; 

as One whose infinite perfections claim supreme 

trust, adoration, and love 52-66 

Chapter IV. — That Scripture, in the Old and the New 
Testament alike, proves the coequal Deity of Jesus 
Christ with that of the eternal Father ; — 

by a comparison of the attributes, the majesty, 
and the claims of the Father and the Son : 
by the appearances of God to the Old Testament 
saints : 

by the direct and Divine worship paid to Christ : 
by the conjunction of the Father and the Son 
in Divine offices : 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

by explicit assertions that Christ is Jehovah 

and God 67-116 

Chapter V. — That Scripture, in the Old and the 
New Testament alike, presents to us the incarnation 
and the mission of the Saviour, as the extremity of 
condescension in Jehovah, that thereby He might 
exalt us to everlasting life. 

The Scriptural order to be observed in this 
inquiry. 

The moral £md spiritual majesty of the incar- 
nation of Christ. 

The examination of those passages which as- 
sert his humanity by the light of others which 
assert his Divinity. 

The derived glory to which He raises believers 

compared with his own essential glories 117-145 

Chapter VI. — That Scripture, in the Old and the New 
Testament alike, proves the coequal Godhead of the 
Holy Spirit with that of the Father and of the Son : 

as One who is to be distinguished from the 
Father and the Son : 

as One to whom such personal properties and 
actions are assigned as prove independent 
and intelligent personality : 

as One to whom Divine attributes are ascribed 
and by whom Divine offices are exercised : 

as One worshipped in parity with the Father 
and the Son : 

as One declared to be Jehovah and God 146-172 

Chapter VII. — That Scripture, in the Old and the 
New Testament alike, assures us that in the trust- 
ful knowledge of one God, the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, is the spiritual life of man now 
and for ever. 

On the mysteries of faith. 

On the revealed evidences of faith. 

On creeds or definitions of faith. 

On the obedience of faith. 

On the full satisfaction of faith, 


173-207 


INTRODUCTION. 


Offered to mankind as a benignant revela- 
tion of practical truth, the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity ought always to be handled and presented 
in a spirit of Christian tenderness. None of 
the great Evangelical principles” is more un- 
fit to be made a matter of partisan contro- 
versy. Undoubtedly it is too much to expect 
that the sectarian temper should wholly re- 
frain from tampering with it. Such is the 
fatal force of prejudice, such the energy of 
human passions, and such the propensity to 
bring down the highest and holiest things into 
the market-places of pride and ambition, that 
violent and even profane hands will some- 
times be laid on the very ark of the divine 
mysteries, filled with the promises and gifts 
of God to his children. Painful examples of 
this irreverence are too fresh and too fre- 
quent. They result partly from the general 
impatience and selfishness of our nature ; 
partly from a disposition in unspiritual minds, 


8 


INTRODUCTION. 


which are yet unwilling to let go a certain 
formal commerce with the concerns of faith, 
to escape from the strange regions of devout 
communion into the less exacting service of 
speculation and criticism ; and partly also, it 
must probably be confessed, from a certain 
dry, unnutritive, pragmatic character pertain- 
ing to the presentation of the doctrine on the 
part of some of its defenders. An intellectual 
perception of the fact of God’s tri-unity, as it 
is written in Scripture, in history, and in the 
laws and relations of the mind’s interior world, 
may be separated from that deeper and more 
vital apprehension of the same fact which 
comes by faith, and which enters straight into 
a living sympathy with the secret riches and 
consolations it enfolds. There has been too 
much willingness to substitute the dialectic 
process, so good and so honorable in its place, 
for that rarer way which gains conviction by 
labors of the heart, opens a knowledge of the 
doctrine by the doing of the will, and lies 
chiefly by closets and sanctuaries and sacra- 
ments, and close to the foot of the cross, 
where the things of the Spirit are spiritually 
discerned. .Rightly regarded, this truth of the 
Trinity comprehends within it the sum of 
God’s most signal blessings. Its tone and as- 
pect, therefore, should always be represented 


INTRODUCTION. 


9 


as cheerful and encouraging. It should appear 
with the freedom and joy, the engaging voice 
and graceful gesture of a life-giver and a de- 
liverer. It is the herald of redemption. It 
bears the only key to the whole Gospel. It is 
the only true teacher of that song of triumph 
sung by the immortal multitude that no man 
can number. It speaks the threefold benedic- 
tion of grace, mercy, and peace. It gives our 
sinning and sorrowing hearts one God, who is 
at once a real Creator, a real Kedeemer, and a 
real Comforter, — our Father, our Saviour, our 
Sanctifier. With one hand it points to the sure 
word of both God's Testaments ; with the other it 
holds out to us the bread on which we feed 
in our hearts by faith," and the eucharistic cup 
of the New Testament in the propitiatory 
blood of the Lamb which is shed for the re- 
mission of sins. Its face is as the sun shining 
in his strength. It reconciles all the wondrous 
elements of man’s salvation. And, for this rea- 
son, believers should preach the Trinity, and 
plead for it, not as seeking a victory for their 
party, but only the blessedness of their fel- 
lows, and the glory of the Triune himself 
Those who reject it can never understand, 
while rejecting it, why we should keep it, as 
we do, foremost and uppermost in our praises 
and thanksgivings, our litany and our creed • 
1 * 


10 


INTEODTJCTION'. 


and just as little, after they once see and re- 
ceive it in its divine simplicity, can they under- 
stand how it should ever be suffered to hold 
any inferior place. Surely, then, if ever men 
could afford to be patient under opposition, 
they on whom this supreme light has risen 
can forbear even with injustice, with flippancy, 
with bitterness, in those from whom it is still 
hid. 

In this respect, the treatise here republished 
is eminently blameless. It is impossible to 
read it without seeing that the author, in a 
spirit worthy of his honored name, is moved 
with a disinterested earnestness; is not seek- 
ing himself, but the souls for which the Mas- 
ter died; and writes not as fearing men but 
God, and as loving both men and God, con- 
scious of living under the august lights and 
shadows of eternity. He pursues his firm, 
massive, and cumulative argument with the 
solemnity of one who feels how fearful and 
how sad it is to deny what lies so central in 
the Bible, yet with a gentleness inspired by 
the genial promises of his subject. With the 
confidence of a witness who knows in whom 
he has believed and stands on the -^Eock of 
Ages ” he unites the humility of a disciple who 
counts not himself to have apprehended, but 
nevertheless has been enriched with an expe- 


INTRODUCTION. 


11 


rience that tells more than flesh and blood 
can reveal. By a long struggle with the er- 
rors of denial he has come to a thorough 
appreciation of the subjective difficulties of 
Unitarian minds, and a thorough acquaintance, 
with the Biblical resources best adapted to 
relieve them. These are arrayed, with a per- 
vading thoughtfulness for the religious wel- 
fare and peace of the reader which form a 
very impressive contrast with the character- 
istic method of his opponents. These latter 
can, at best, claim for their view only that it 
superadds a benefit of some sort to them that 
would be safe without it: while the Trinita- 
rian believes, on what he considers the assur- 
ance of Bevelation, that his doctrine, wrought 
with a full or a fainter consciousness into the 
soufs life, is the needful wisdom of God and 
power of God unto the salvation of the world. 

The recent defences of the Anti-Trinitarian 
position, which render this work timely, be- 
sides the general inherent infirmity just refer- 
red to, suffer under the particular disadvantage 
of a disastrous practical experiment immedi- 
ately present to contradict them. Forty or 
fifty years ago, those views came forth with 
the charm of novelty. They had, indeed, ap- 
peared from time to time in the heretical 
phenomena of Christian history. But their 


12 


INTEODUCTION. 


successive failures were remote from obser- 
vation. A long prescriptive dominion of the 
Puritan theology had not only driven them 
out of mind, but had brought in upon the 
. community a frequent dogmatism of state- 
ment, a scholastic style of discourse, and an 
intolerance in ecclesiastical policy, which cre- 
ated a favorable crisis for the propagation of 
almost any system which should place itself 
on the ground of liberality, and propose relief 
from what was ascetic, condemnatory, or ex- 
clusive in the prevalent code of opinion and 
manners. Who could say but Unitarianism, 
proposed in a modified form, softened by the 
intuitive reverence and conservative instincts 
of many Gospel-trained generations, might suc- 
ceed ? Since that time, the trial has been 
made, and has manifestly not succeeded. Hav- 
ing acquired a temporary local popularity, 
with the social influence, wealth, literary cul- 
ture, and ethical respectability of a consider- 
able community on its side, the sect has cul- 
minated, and passed already into a state of 
subordination. Households of faith which it 
regarded with contempt have quietly but 
steadily grown up around it, and through the 
midst of it, crowding it aside. The zeal of 
its own adherents has declined. The spiritual 
hunger and thirst of its children, unsatisfied 


INTRODUCTION. 


13 


after long waiting, have turned them away to 
more positive, permanent, evangelical brother- 
hoods. The enthusiasm that makes aggres- 
sions, and the confidence that gives money, 
are both palpably abated, by the confession 
and yet to the endless surprise of its public 
advocates. The relative decay of its Church 
vitality has been even more conspicuous than 
that of its external vigor. Its reliance on 
domestic to the disparagement of foreign mis- 
sions has not been justified by any adequate 
religious impression on the poorer classes. 
The tone of pulpit discourse and of ceremo- 
nial observance has been lowered and secu- 
larized. To a noticeable degree, the dignity 
and manliness in the s^K^^^F'lhe earlier con- 
troversy have given p&.^e to ihxpatient dec- 
lamation and coarse p^sonalitiesy Far more 
than the best friends ofibajoause are willing to 
allow, rationalistic notions have been diffused 
among the ministry and the laity, till it is about 
equally difficult to ascertain what many of 
them believe, and on what authority their re- 
maining beliefs repose. More remarkable than 
all, that charity, or liberality, which was the 
chief original merit and prime article of its first 
period, attracting many generous minds to its 
fellowship, has been exchanged for a bitter in- 
tolerance of all differences which diverge to- 


14 


INTRODUCTION. 


wards the faith of the orthodox Church, and a 
petulant use of such weapons of persecution as 
were not forfeited by the fundamental profes- 
sions of the movement. Under circumstances of 
damage like these, it was to be expected that a 
new discussion of the Trinity,” in no respect 
superior to that of half a century since, with no 
increase of natural ability, with less than Chan- 
ning’s eloquence, less than Norton’s learning, a 
less elevated piety than that of Worcester and 
the Wares, should serve better to illustrate the 
losses than to restore the strength of the de- 
nomination. 

While the truth compels us, however, to state 
these things just as they are, we should be 
equally unjust to the more religious portion of 
^Hhe people called Unitarians,” and ungrateful 
to the Divine Providence in their history, if we 
omitted to recognize among them worthy and 
noble members of the fold of the true Israelites. 
Deprived, as we are compelled to think, of 
much of their rightful power by an unwise con- 
nection, embarrassed by a responsibility for ne- 
gations and profanations from which no amount 
of verbal disclaimer can release them, cut off 
from glorious and animating opportunities, 
shortened as to their proper gospel efficiency, 
unable to join their work for Christ upon any 
institution stamped with the promise of abid- 


INTRODUCTION. 


15 


ing or with the seals of God’s great historic 
sanctions, beguiled by a view of hberty which 
at once misconstrues the apostolic catholicity, 
misjudges orthodoxy, and really substitutes iso- 
lation for Christian independence, and thereby 
robbed of a peace which would be as much for 
God’s honor as their own health, they seem to us 
to occupy a position peculiarly fit to be left. But 
we have a twofold ground of comfort respecting 
them : one, in their own Christian worth and 
sincerity; the other, in the clear tendency of 
their life and speech even where they are, and 
in spite of their hindrances, to further the spread 
of Christ’s gospel, and to hasten the day of its 
complete confession. For, as a penetrating 
writer has well said, ^^Let the Unitarian min- 
istry and periodicals accustom their people to 
hear the words Incarnation, Trinity, and Kegen- 
eration ; let them be told often enough that the 
historic theology of the Church on these points 
was substantially true ; let them be exhorted 
to the use of the historic formulas of worship 
and praise, and to reverence for the mysterious 
power of the sacraments ; and then let them 
feel the renewing breath of the Divine Spirit 
giving repentance for sin and faith in the Lord 
Jesus, and it needs no prophet to foretell the 
result.” 

Just this, to an extent surprising even to san- 


16 


INTRODUCTION. 


guine observers, is what has been repeatedly 
done in these recent discussions. Expressions 
have been used, so charged with evangelic 
meaning that, but for contrary expressions evi- 
dently affixed out of deference to habit or 
precedent or names, the whole effect would be 
quite satisfactory to a Trinitarian mind. Sev- 
eral prominent Unitarians, while arguing per- 
sistently against the Trinity,” have frankly 
avowed their belief in a Trinity,” finding it in 
the Bible and in the Church. Indeed, such con- 
cessions are now frequently made in this direc- 
tion as would utterly confound some of the 
former champions of the Unitarian cause. One 
of the most vigorous participators in this new 
debate, who is clearly not trying an experiment 
on the credulity or respect of his readers, but 
is as much in earnest as his philosophy allows 
him to be, nullifies an elaborate article written 
in the Unitarian interest with a placid acknowl- 
edgment that he has a decided personal inclina- 
tion to the doctrine of Athanasius. He says. 
The Christian doctrine embodied in the ^ Trin- 
ity,’ — a belief in the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, — to us is the sum and summit of 
Christian truth,” — and adds elsewhere, It is 
a matter of regret that the ^ Unitarians’ of a 
former generation were led by their needful 
and timely protest against Trinitarian dogma- 


INTRODUCTION. 


17 


tism into a position of seeming hostility, and in 
some cases of real indifference, to this doctrine.” 
Such concessions as these, wrung out by the 
simple force of conviction, in spite of so many 
motives to suppress them, no matter with what 
literal counter-words they may be accompanied, 
leave us room for hardly anything but conso- 
lation and hope. God is on their side, and in 
the fight of inconsistency will make them more 
and mightier than the sentences that are their 
adversaries. For the time, some minds may 
be bewildered. We have heard of more than 
one young person, previously Unitarian, so 
entirely perplexed by these late incongruous 
expositions of their former opinions, as to be 
quite wretched with doubt. But this will be 
transient, and when they emerge it will be 
into the sunlight of an unchangeable trust in 
Him who is, from the Scriptures, demonstrated 
to be one God in the threefold personality 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Error is neutralized in different ways. Of 
the only three recent and near writers on the 
negative of this subject who have any actual 
theological importance, one, as we have seen, 
yields all that historical orthodoxy (except for 
some unavailing protests) would care to de- 
mand ; another makes up his most forcible 
objections by citing those of a Trinitarian 


18 


INTHODUCTION. 


believer, who had weighed them all and was 
a Trinitarian of the Trinitarians notwithstand- 
ing; and the third contents himself with the 
ingenious paradox of pretending, in the face 
of the whole record and the common intelli- 
gence of reading men, that a particular his- 
torian, Neander, was not a Trinitarian. 

Having alluded to these productions, we will 
notice here, — though we had no such inten- 
tion when we began, — two or three of their 
principal characteristics. They are all written 
in review of a sermon entitled “ Life, Salva- 
tion, and Comfort for Man in the Divine 
Trinity,” lately published in a volume called 
Christian Believing and Living.” Considered 
as criticisms on that sermon, a considerable 
part of their matter is sufficiently disposed of 
by a reference to two facts. In the first place, 
the sermon is treated as if it were intended 
to be a systematic and exhaustive treatise on 
the doctrine, instead of an exposition of some 
of its practical uses. That the latter is its 
real character, its title clearly imports, and all 
candid readers acknowledge. So far as any 
argumentative processes are included, they 
are simply incidental to the main design, the 
unusual length of the discourse scarcely allow 
ing room after all for the execution of that 
main design. A properly theological and an- 


INTRODUCTION. 


19 


alytic method, or even a cursory collection of 
scriptural and historical proofs, would have 
required several hundred pages. Very many 
of the strictures on the sermon appear to lose 
their support when this is observed. 

Secondly, the reviewers constantly confound 
what the sermon claims for the great doctrine 
of the Trinity itself, as the historical faith of 
the Church and the revelation of the Bible, 
with a comparatively unimportant exhibition 
of its author’s mode of stating and interpret- 
ing that doctrine. This distinction is easily 
recognized in the language of the sermon, 
which does not ask that its own form of the 
doctrine should be universally accepted, — 
though that is given as possibly helpful to 
some minds, — but only that the living and 
life-giving substance should be taken into the 
soul, whereby the worshippers can cordially 
confess to the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creed, 
and then say, " 0 holy, blessed, and glorious 
Trinity, three persons in one God.” The 
term "person” is also especially dwelt upon 
as not bearing the ordinary metaphysical sig- 
nification. That there are many varieties of 
shape given to this as to the other doctrines of 
our religion, under the handling of different 
thinkers in different ages, and in language 
which is all confessedly unequal to the infinite 


20 


INTEODUCTION. 


theme, so far from being an occasion of dis- 
trust, is rather an evidence of the wondrous 
breadth, power, and adaptability of the essen- 
tial truth underlying all the forms. 

But let us approach directly, face to face, the 
grand sources of light on this question. 

1. The first of these is in the Holy Scriptures. 
No other testimony is so convincing. What- 
ever philosophy, or the Fathers, or the wants 
of our nature may suggest, it is to the in- 
spired oracles of the Eternal Word that we 
look for final satisfaction. The force of their 
august decisions is felt even by the least re- 
ligious class of men. This testimony is given 
in the work before us. If we cannot say it is 
given exhaustively, — as indeed it can never 
be, except in the Bible itself, — yet we can 
safely say that it is here marshalled in such 
original combinations and arrangements, with 
such overwhelming fulness and through such 
delicate gradations of analogy, under such a 
lucid classification both of ideas and of pas- 
sages, with a scholarship so competent, and a 
spirit so fair, as to supersede all similar com- 
pilations, leaving nothing further to be desired. 
Conclusive as the Bibfical proof had appeared 
to us, we acknowledge that its vast sweep 
and marvellous power had never been felt as 
they were after following through these stately 


INTRODUCTION. 


21 


and beautiful lines of demonstration. The pil- 
lars of the structure stand thick and firm. 
The walls are strong and high. Part is 
divinely fitted and proportioned to part. In 
symmetry, majesty and simplicity, the edifice 
is "all glorious within.” Doubtless some of 
these Scriptural citations are more explicit 
than others. Different persons will be differ- 
ently affected by this or that particular text. 
But there are enough for " all orders and 
conditions of men.” Pass over one page, and 
you are arrested on the next. Question the 
interpretation of one passage, and you are 
forthwith silenced by another which needs no 
interpretation, and admits but one. The uni- 
ty of the Bible rises before you, in the sub- 
limity of God’s unchangeable thought. Por- 
tions of the Book which before appeared dis- 
connected, or meaningless, or obscure, range 
themselves into the progressive order of reve- 
lations, luminous with a flood of glory from the 
throne of God and the Lamb, the Spirit show- 
ing them. Christ is beheld in the Old Testa- 
ment as well as the New, the all-pervading Sub- 
ject, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and 
the Omega, the First and the Last. The argu- 
ment, if we may call that an argument which 
partakes more of a direct divine manifestation 
or theophany than of reasoning, — is unan- 
swerable. 


22 


INTRODUCTION. 


2. The second source of instruction is in 
man’s higher intuitions, and cognitions. Edu- 
cated and set into their relations these form a 
philosophy of religion, and enter as an element 
into scientific theology. It has been said, and 
can be confidently repeated, that the highest 
Reason, as developed in the best conditions, 
has recognized, and does still recognize, a 
philosophic or metaphysic basis for the truth 
of the Divine Trinity. And this declaration 
may be safely left to any fair jury of learning 
in the world. But no Christian believer would 
think of trusting the defence of his faith to 
so subordinate an advocate independently of 
the authority of the Word. 

The sermon in question, in a brief exposition 
of the speculative form which the doctrine as- 
sumes to its author, makes the distinction, by 
no means an original or unusual one, between 
God in his absolute essence and God revealed 
in action. The Bible justifies the same distinc- 
tion. Yet, by a gross misrepresentation, this 
view is charged with holding up a Quaternity 
instead of a Trinity. It no more holds up a 
Quaternity than those Unitarians who believe 
Christ to be a "manifestation of the Father,” 
hold up a Duality. Captiousness has always 
found a cheap exercise on these heavenly mys- 
teries ; and the disputers against them are im- 


INTRODUCTION. 


23 


patient when they are referred to the just 
cause of their blindness. But it was surely 
for some class of minds that our Lord de- 
signed that fearful warning of retribution that 
he uttered just when he was speaking of the 
coming of the Personal Comforter, the Third 
Person of the Trinity ; " Whom the world 
canmt receive^ because^ it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth himr 

The untrustworthiness of a writer who is 
vexed by disappointment and carried away 
by party-feeling is exemplified in a strange 
sentence from the same objector, who pro- 
nounces the statement that "the ascendant 
school of philosophical thought to-day is une- 
quivocally Trinitarian,” to be a piece of " grave 
audacity too comical for serious discussion,” and 
adds, " Trinitarian indeed! We wish we could 
say it was even Christian.” The form of the 
last expression seems to imply an inadvertent 
confession that to be Trinitarian is to be spe- 
cially Christian, which we are glad to see owned 
never so indirectly. But what can this reckless 
rejoinder mean ? What can be the critic’s no- 
tion of the ‘^ascendant school of philosophical 
thought?” He considers it infidel. We are 
aware that there is a stage of intellectual devel- 
opment when youths are ^pt to consider Car- 
lyle the Coryphaeus of philosophers, Edgar Poe 


24 


INTRODUCTION. 


the first of poets, and Shelley a prophet. We 
are aware that some Unitarians seriously think 
that within one little province of the religious 
world, of which a great majority of men are 
still provokingly uninformed, are concentrated 
about all the human scholarship and wit and 
wisdom and talent worth considering : we are 
aware that with some minds boldness, novelty, 
and vagueness are very formidable, and pass for 
profundity ; but we did not expect the above 
incredible and appalling judgment where we 
find it. We look abroad, through the ranks of 
the great men in America, in England, in France, 
in Germany, and we are utterly at a loss to dis- 
cover that "ascendant school of philosophical 
thought” which is not even Christian. We are 
curious to learn who are the masters. We sus- 
pect there wmuld be some hesitancy in pro- 
nouncing their names. Then we look into the 
philosophy taught our young men in our 
schools and universities, defended by our Pres- 
idents and Professors of Colleges, and applied 
by Christian scholars to the elucidation of theo- 
logical problems, and we wonder if it is all a 
deliberate or inevitable tuition in infidelity. 
Neither do the deniers agree together. Just as 
we are writing these words our eyes fall on this 
sentence from a Imng Unitarian, second to 
no other in scholarship and in fairness: "The 


INTRODUCTION. 


25 


Church of the Apostles began with the practi- 
cal assertion of this truth, which our profoundest 
modern philosophy is now emphatically declaring , — 
that the complete or Divine Humanity is not 
contained in the individual man, but in man- 
kind continuously and collectively, as regener- 
ate and nurtured under divine influence.” On 
the whole, we shall not be disturbed in our con- 
victions on this subject. They are the convic- 
tions of honest and reverent students, just to 
the degree that their studies, liberated from the 
narrow confines of sectarian prejudice, become 
catholic and comprehensive. Not a few have 
been sternly compelled to avow them against 
the mighty influences of habit, position, pride, 
private friendship and a public committal to 
the contrary. It provoked anger, but no suc- 
cessful contradiction, when, a few years ago, a 
public man, of indisputable accomplishments as 
a historian and a master of the higher learning, 
educated in the foremost ranks of Unitarianism, 
declared, " The truth of the Triune God dwells 
in every system of thought that can pretend 
to vitality. The idea of an incarnate God 
carried peace into the bosom of mankind.” 

3. The third confirmation of the faith of the 
Church is found in its own Providential history, 
and in the mouths of its long line of glori- 
fied witnesses. That anybody who has read 


2 


26 


INTRODUCTION. 


that history and listened to those witnesses 
should deny that Trinitarianism has been the 
creed of the Church from the days of Christ 
and the Apostles, will appear incredible in 
exactly the measure that we advance to a 
thorough acquaintance with the record. Yet, 
for obvious reasons, it has been in this de- 
partment of the threefold evidence that the 
deniers of the doctrine have found it easiest 
to throw up the appearances of self-defence. 
In the abstruse discussions of many of the 
old writers, in the singular union of minute 
speculative distinctions with a copious figura- 
tive phraseology brought into theology by the 
early oriental controversialists, in the conflict- 
ing decisions of councils, of different grades 
of authority and different periods, on the sub- 
ordinate questions raised from time to time, 
in the large liberty of construction put upon 
technical language, and especially in the plaus- 
ible plea of progress,” there will be many 
opportunities for perplexing the mind as to 
the real, substantial, "common” belief of the 
Church, outliving and underlying all these 
superficial agitations. Yet to the simple un- 
derstanding, searching in a spirit of faith, the 
broad conclusion will be almost as plain as 
it is to the truly learned and Evangelical 
scholar. The facts are very conclusive. 1. 


INTRODUCTION. 


27 


We find the doctrine that God is One, and 
that God is Three, asserted in the Scriptures, 
and declared especially by the Saviour him- 
self and the Teachers of the Apostolic age. 
2. We find this Divine Threeness continually 
set forth, not in systematic articles, for which 
there was yet no occasion, but in the praises, 
confessions and exhortations of the second 
century. 3. We find that so soon as a debate 
on the proper meaning of this early historic symbol 
arose, a remarkable twofold phenomenon be- 
gan to appear; viz., a more explicit, authoritor 
tive avowal of Trinitarianism on the part of the 
Church, Catholic and Orthodox, continuing down 
to this time, together with a uniform classifying of 
the various opposing opinions as heresies, A vast 
deal of ingenuity and erudition have been 
expended on honest attempts to break the 
force of these obstinate facts. But the latest 
of such unblessed enterprises has been as vain 
as the first. 

A misunderstanding of the actual view of 
development in Christian doctrine held by 
some sound ecclesiastical historians has led a 
respectable Unitarian writer to the unwarrant- 
able conclusion that when such orthodox his- 
torians speak of a doctrine developed they there- 
fore imply some discredit to its thorough 
scripturalness. So Neander has been abused. 


28 


INTRODUCTION. 


There is undoubtedly such a theory of ^^de- 
velopment” as that here referred to, which 
dishonors the Bible in comparison with tradi- 
tion. But it is as far as possible from that 
of the historians and theologians in question, 
who believed the doctrine of the Trinity, ‘^in 
its scientific form,” to be developed out of a 
doctrine of the Trinity more fundamental and 
incontrovertible, revealed in the Word of God 
himself 

We have spoken of the admissible and indeed 
instructive variety in the speculative explana- 
tions put upon the great central and abiding 
truth. There are a few statements on minor 
points in this volume to which we do not 
assent. It undoubtedly serves the purpose of 
opponents to confound the truth and the expla- 
nation together. But that undertaking has an 
effectual adversary not only in the light of 
impartial investigation, but in the hidden intui- 
tions of devout souls. Thus it is in respect to 
the main practical application of the Trinitarian 
doctrine, in the atonement for sin. The Catho- 
lic teaching of the Church is that, except in the 
essentially Trinitarian view of Christ, the needed 
redemption is not wrought out. In their inter- 
pretations of the mode of the efficacious connec- 
tion between the one truth and the other, ortho- 
dox teachers have disagreed. But, practically. 


INTRODUCTION. 


29 


each believing heart settles itself calmly and 
firmly in the faith, nnvexed by the dispute. 
For our own part, we derive unspeakable con- 
solation and peace and strength from the faith 
of an emotional, sympathizing God, able and 
willing to suffer for us and with us in Christ, 
through all the passages of infirmity in " our 
low estate.” To blot out this belief would 
greatly darken the benign splendors of the Bible 
to us. That brightness on its pages illuminates 
all our times of dimness and pain. Our breth- 
ren may apply to this belief whatever names 
they prefer, old or new. We cling gratefully 
to it, and it clings graciously to us. Others, we 
know, obtain similar support from believing 
that it was only the human nature in Christ 
that suffered, — this human nature being so 
united with the divine as to effect the needful 
propitiation. Now, if those who reject both 
beliefs, and the propitiation besides, choose to 
judge which of these is properly orthodox, and 
which is suspicious orthodoxy, it is a harmless 
exercise of privilege. But they can hardly 
with seriousness expect orthodoxy of any sort 
to look to them for its standards of soundness in 
the faith. With all due appreciation of this 
neighborly vigilance, we shall ourselves be con- 
tent to be in the fellowship not only of Proph- 
ets, Apostles, and Saints of old, but of Hooker, 


30 


INTRODUCTION. 


Pearson, and Charnock, of Beveridge, Horsley, 
and Barrow, of Jeremy Taylor, Chalmers, and 
Kobert Hall, of later days. Nor would it in 
the least discompose us if on a mystery so 
high, and among glories into which the an- 
gels desire to look, any of these "far-seeing 
spirits” should be found to report their vis- 
ions in words literally inharmonious, and all 
unworthy of the unspeakable theme. 

But it is time to leave our author to speak 
for himself, — nay, to speak for his Lord. The 
immortal cause is strengthening. The Church 
moves gloriously on to her triumph in the 
second advent of her Living Head. The multi- 
tudes are gathering and flocking as doves to 
their windows. "All they gather themselves 
together, — Gentiles to thy light, and kings to 
the brightness of thy rising. The sons also of 
them that afflicted thee shall come bending 
unto thee ! ” The " Bock of Ages ” is not 
moved. The " coming Church,” the " new 
Church,” the " Church of the future,” can be no 
other than the Church which has been, is now, 
and ever shall be, — ever new, and ever old, — 
world without end. Glory be to the Father, 
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ! 

F. D. H. 

Cambridge, Monday in Whitsun-week, 1860. 


PREFACE. 


The title-page of this Treatise may sufficiently 
indicate the line of argument I have attempted to 
pursue. My standard of reference throughout, has 
been the memorable precept, “ Trust ye in the Lord 
for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of 
Ages.” (Isai. xxvi. 4.) That the one Infinite God 
claims our supreme and undivided confidence ; that 
the same confidence is, on the warrant of Scripture, 
to be reposed in the Father, and in the Son, and in 
the Holy Ghost ; and that therefore Father, Son, and 
Spirit are equally God over all, blessed for ever, the 
Triune Jehovah, in whose name alone we trust, on 
whose arm alone we rely, and whose majesty alone 
we adore and love: — such is the brief outline of a 
train of thought indehbly impressed many years ago 
on my own mind. 

Local circumstances, to which I allude in my open- 
ing chapter, induced me this autumn to commit these 
thoughts to paper. I intended to write only a brief 
pamphlet. But I found that proofs from the written 


32 


PREFACE. 


word accumulated upon me so rapidly, that I could 
not duly sketch this most momentous of subjects in 
so cursory a way. I therefore suffered Scripture as it 
were to lead me by the hand : until by compiling and 
illustrating Bible evidence alone, my little essay swelled 
to nearly its present dimensions. And when the 
rough draft of my manuscript was to some extent com- 
pleted, I did not scruple to avail myself of the labors 
of those authors, to which I have from time to time 
referred, so far as my limited leisure permitted me to 
consult them. I especially allude to Dr. Pye Smith’s 
“ Scripture Testimony to the Messiah : ” my readers 
will find how much I am indebted to that truly learned 
and elaborate work. I would also mention a short but 
valuable treatise, now out of print, by the late Mr. 
Seijeant Sellon; Dwight’s Theology, vol. ii. ; Ward- 
law’s Discourses ; Serle’s Horae Solitariae ; Lectures 
at Christ Church, Liverpool ; Scholefield’s Hints ; Dr. 
Gordon’s Supreme Godhead of Christ; and Jones’ 
Cathohc Doctrine of a Trinity: though to many of 
these authors I have only been able to refer, as iso- 
lated passages led me to desire to know their judg- 
ment on contested interpretations. With respect to 
the last, “ Jones’ Cathohc Doctrine,” which contains 
so much in so brief a space, I had not seen it until 
my Treatise was almost finished. His system of 
proof is in some respects similar to mine: but even 
my threefold comparison in the last chapter of this 
work, which resembles his arrangement the nearest, 


PREFACE. 


33 


was commenced before the possession of his work 
enabled me to enrich this and two or three earlier 
sections likewise, with some most apposite quotations 
gleaned by him from the Word of God. I mention 
this only to show that my collection of Scriptural 
evidence was, in the main, independent ; for in such 
a subject, of all others, claims of originality can have 
no place. Here eminently, Koiva rd tuv (piXuv. But while 
speaking of other writers, may I be permitted to urge 
any, who do not know them, to study some essays 
“ On the Religions of Man and the Religion of God,’* 
by the late Professor Vinet, of Lausanne?* Space 
alone prevented my quoting at the close of this book 
a large portion of his admirable remarks on the mys- 
teries of Christianity. He is not unjustly called the 
Chalmers of Switzerland; for in his hands the deep- 
est subjects bloom with hfe and love. 

But after all, our appeal must be to One Booh. I 
have honestly tried to understand the views of sincere 
Unitarians ; but I can come to no other conclusion, 
than that while sometimes freely using the language 
of Scripture with respect to our Lord, they regard 
Him only as a most highly exalted and divinely en- 
dowed CREATURE. In a word, to them He is not 
God. And therefore, on their hypothesis, if men 
trust in Him for eternal salvation, reposing their en- 

* The work is called “ Vital Christianity: ” and is well translated by 
an American pastor. It is published in a very cheap form, by W. Col- 
lins, Paternoster Row, London. 

2 * 


34 


PREFACE. 


tire confidence in Him, they are trusting in a crea- 
ture, which is idolatry, (Jerem. xvii. 5-8.) Where- 
as if they do not so trust in Him, they are rejecting 
the only name under heaven given among men where- 
by we must be saved. (Acts iv. 12.) From this dis- 
astrous alternative I see no possible escape. 

I rejoice to think, however, they are bound down 
by no definite creed of error. They are, to use their 
own emphatic expression, ‘ a drifting body.’ O that 
it might please God that the movement amongst the 
American Unitarians might spread to our own land ! 
And whilst they profess to draw their faith from the 
oracles of truth, who can despair of their being brought 
back to the one flock, and the one Shepherd? For 
“ the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; ” 
“ the entrance of thy words giveth light ; ” “ the sword 
of the Spirit is the word of God.” In the humble hope 
that some may be led to search anew, and to beheve 
at last the Scriptures which testify of Jesus, these 
pages have been written ; and utterly disclaiming all 
confidence in any other weapons, my one prayer is 
that the Divine Spirit may cast down imaginations 
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the 
knowledge of God, and may bring into captivity every 
thought to the obedience of Christ. 

Christ Church Parsonage, 

Hampstead, 7th December, 1859. 


THE KOCK OF AGES. 


CHAPTER I. 

A DEEP conviction that many who refuse to ac- 
knowledge the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
have never duly examined one hne of Scriptural argu- 
ment which presents to my own mind the most con- 
clusive evidence of this foundation-truth, induces me,‘ 
though “ in weakness and in fear and in much trem- 
bling,” to ask their patient and prayerful perusal of 
this Treatise. My hesitation arises not from the least 
doubt of the security of the doctrine ; but from con- 
sciousness how unequal I am to do justice to the 
proofs which establish it, from a most affectionate 
concern for the souls of those to whom I write, and 
from a deep assurance that in the rejection or cordial 
acceptance of this truth are bound up the John m. 36. 
issues of eternal death or eternal life. 2 John 9. 

I am well aware that many larger and more elabo- 
rate treatises, written by far abler advocates, are with- 
in their reach : but sometimes, an essay written by 
a neighbor will be read with courteous interest when 
volumes of far deeper research are passed by. And 
my lot has been cast where many Unitarians * reside : 

* I use the word “ Unitarians ” as the distinctive name they have 


36 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


their acts of kindness and benevolence are continually 
making themselves felt amongst us, and proofs are 
multiplied on every side of their own mental culture, 
and of their desire for the moral elevation of the 
poor. Who that delights in things lovely and of good 
report can refrain from loving their excellencies? I 
long over them : and yet my opportunities of inter- 
course are of necessity casual and limited. Hence, if 
it will not seem presumptuous, I know not how better 
to account for my present Address than in the lan- 
guage of St. Paul on behalf of his kinsmen — “ Breth- 
ren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for 
Rom. X. 1. ig xniglit be saved.” 

Another motive weighs with me — may I ask my 
reader’s forgiveness for any personal allusion ? — but I 
believe few can have passed through years of more 
incessant spiritual conflict than myself, and this long 
after I had embraced the Gospel with the affections of 
my soul. Apparent scriptural contradictions staggered, 
me : for I found to my cost the Tempter could assail 
us as he assailed our Master, saying;, “It is 

Mat. iv. 6. . ’ J to’ 

written.” The battle raged over the whole 
field of revealed truth, though chiefly around the cen- 
tral fact of our holy faith, the Divinity of the Son of 
God. The Bible was my only sword, prayer my only 
resource, until, through the infinite mercy of God, 
those very truths around which skeptical doubts had 
once clustered most thickly, became the strongest bul- 
warks to which, when assailed on other points, I used 
to resort. Since that time, in the course of my minis- 

assuraed : but under protest, that it does not fairly set forth the points 
at issue betwixt us, if for no other reason, for this, that we cleave to the 
Unity of God as tenaciously as they. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


87 


try during the last ten years, I have had many difficul- 
ties brought before me by Unitarians and others, but 
scarcely ever a perplexity which had not been sug- 
gested to my own mind, and over which I had not 
fought oftentimes a painful fight. So that at least I 
can say with Virgil’s heroine 


“Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco: ” 

and I can conceive no purer joy on earth than that of 
being permitted to lead some other tempest-tost spirit 
to that faith where I have found security and peace. 
Those I address will at least find here no artificial 
fencing, for I am no trained swordsman in this contro- 
versy : but sometimes it has pleased God to overcome 
gigantic error, not by the skilful gladiator clad in the 
panoply of learning, but by a few smooth stones from 
the sling of a shepherd boy. 

And here if any earnest student designs to give me 
his attention I would ask him to pause, and to pour 
out his heart in prayer that he may be guided into all 
truth. Such an inquirer feels with me, that eternal 
life is wrapt up in “ the knowledge of the 
only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom 
He hath sent ; ” that “ God is, and that He is a 
rewarder of the man that diligently seeks ^ ^ 
him ; ” and will therefore feel no difficulty 
in uniting with me in such or such like 
every clause of which is taken from Scripture : — 

‘‘Almighty God, the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who inhabitest eternity, who ^ ^ „ 

dwellest in the high and holy place, but 
with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, 
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the 


John xvii. 3. 


petitions. 


38 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


isai. ivii. 15. heart of the contrite ones: grant me to un- 
Prov. ii. 5. derstand the fear of the Lord, and to find the 
jobxi. 7. knowledge of God. I cannot by searching 
iTim.i. 17. find out Thee unto perfection, the King, 
eternal, immortal, invisible. But look down from 
Isai. ixiii. 15 heaven, and behold fi:om the habitation of thy 
holiness and of thy glory. Doubtless thou art 
my Father. Shew mercy upon me, and be gracious 
Ex. xxxiii. 19. uuto me. Search me, O God, and know my 
ps. cxxxix. heart, try me and know my thoughts, and 
margin. soo if there be any way of grief in me, and 
lead me in the way everlasting. I plead the promise 
of Jesus, if ye being evil, know how to give good things 
to your children, how much more shall your heavenly 
Luke xi. 13. Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask 
ps.cixiii. 7, Hear me speedily, O Lord, hide not 

thy face from me — thy Spirit is good : lead 
me. For I ask in the name of Jesus, who is able to 
save to the uttermost those that come unto Thee by 
him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for 
them, and who hath said, whatsoever ye 
shall ask in my name, that will I do, that 
johnxiv. 13. the Father may be glorified in the Son.” 

O solemn and blessed pursuit ! We are seeking the 
Lord. Strip the words, I pray you, of every unmean- 
ing association, and yield your whole being, under- 
standing, heart, conscience, will, to the momentous 
inquiry. Let us humble ourselves with the recollec- 
tion, “Verily, thou art a God that hidest thy- 
q Saviour.” Let 

US encourage ourselves with the quickly succeeding 
^ assurance, “ I said not unto the seed of 
Jacob, seek ye me in vain.” Thus though 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


39 


there will, there must be in the self-revelation of 
Him, whose ways are past finding out, mysteries 
beyond the reach and range of our finite capacities, 
all necessary and saving knowledge is promised to 
the humble student; for the words of the Psalmist 
have lost nothing of their significance by the lapse 
of time, “ Though the Lord he high yet hath He 
respect unto the lowly, but the proud he cxxxviii 
knoweth afar off,” and again, “The Lord 6. 
is nigh unto them that are of a broken 

° IP . Ps- 18 . 

heart, and saveth such as be oi a contrite 
spirit.” 

These words point to a preparation of the heart. I 
ask not then, my friends, that you should inquire first 
of all into the nature of God’s mysterious Being, the 
Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the personality of the 
Holy Spirit. There is a prior investigation which de- 
mands your earnest heed, and which pursued with 
prayerful study of the word of God, will by his grace 
awaken and cultivate that disposition of mind which 
is fitted for the after inquiry. Starting from those 
truths you acknowledge. What, I ask, is your relation 
to God, what your position before Him as recorded in 
Scripture ? 

You admit that God is the Supreme Creator and 
Father, and Governor, and Judge of all men. You 
confess that He is infinitely holy, and just, and good. 
You acknowledge that He is himself perfect love, and 
must of necessity require the perfect love of his crea- 
tures for the sake of his own glory and of their happi- 
ness. That grand epitome of his righteous code of 
government commends itself to your inmost conscience, 
“ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. 


40 


THE BOCK OF AGES. 


Mat. xsii. 
37 - 39 . 


and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
strength : and thou shalt love thy brother 
as thyself.” If you look higher than man to the pure 
intelligences around the throne of glory, you can con- 
ceive no other law binding together the perfect society 
of heaven. It is the utterance of the mind of the 
blessed God. But now, looking abroad as a practical 
and thoughtful man upon the world as it is, what 
meets your eye? selfishness, misery, discord, enmity, 
rebellion, in one word, sin. Some sights of woe 
move you to compassionate tears, and your heart is 
wrung for the calamities of human kind ; some deeds 
of rapine excite in you a righteous indignation, and 
you exclaim “ such atrocities worthily deserve to 
be punished.” You are pitiful and you are just. 
But remember your sense of pity and of equity is 
only a faint reflection from that in the bosom of 
Lam. iii. 22 . the infinite Jehovah. His compassions fail 
ps. cxix. His righteousness is everlasting. He 

is Father, and Legislator, and Judge in 
one. Sin violates every obligation : it wounds the 
heart of the eternal Father. Listen to his pathetic 
appeal, “ Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth, 

^ ^ for the Lord hath spoken : I have nourished 
and brought up children and they have re- 
belled against me.” It sets at nought the wise regula- 
tions of the Lawgiver. He complains, “ I gave them 
my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which 
if a man do he shall even five in them ; notwithstand- 
ing the children rebelled against me, they walked not 
Eze. XX. 11 ^ statutes, neither kept my judgments to 

^ do them.” It is provoking the judicial con- 

demnation of Him who now expostulates, “ Knowest 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


41 


thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to re- 
pentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart 
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of 
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of 
God, who will render to every man accord- „ ^ 

mo; to his deeds. 


T« inquire then what is the nature of sin, its char- 
acter, course, and issue, is only the part of a rational, 
intelligent being. But herein, especially, it behooves us 
to lay aside all prejudice and pride, to remember how 
distasteful all revelations of our own corruptions must 
be to the natural heart, and to reflect that the plague, 
the diagnosis of which we would learn, itself impairs 
our perceptive faculties. Here then, let us humble our- 
selves as a little child. Here, as we open the Mat. xym. 3 , 
sure word of God, let us answer with Samuel 
of old, “ Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear- ^ 
eth.” And here, if the probe cut deep, let us be as- 
sured, “ Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” „ 

’ ^ ^ ^ ’ Prov. xxTU. 6 . 

and loving is the correction of a Father who 
smites that he may heal and “bind up the 
broken m heart. 

This evil of sin is not superficial, but radical. It 
pervades human life from the cradle to the grave. 
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin pg. n 5. 
did my mother conceive me. The thought Prov.xxiv.9. 
of foolishness is sin. Foolishness is bormd up in the 
heart of a child. The imagination of man’s Prov.xxii.15 
heart is evil from his youth. The heart is Gen. vm. 21. 
deceitful above all things and desperately Jer. xvu. 9. 
wicked. From within, out of the heart, proceed evil 
thoughts ... all these evil things come Markvii. 
from within and defile the man. 


42 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


This evil is not partial, but universal. None have 
Ecci. vii. 20. escaped from it. “ There is not a just man 
Rom. iii. 10. upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” 
19. There is none righteous, no not one. AU 
23. the world becomes guilty before God. All 
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 

This evil is not self-remedial ; but so far as lies in 
jer. XXX. 16. man, incurable. Who can bring a clean 
Job xiv. 4. thing out of an unclean ? Not one. How 
Job XXV. 4. then can man be justified with God ? or how 
can he be clean that is bom of a woman ? Can the 
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? 
Jer xiii 23 good that are accus- 

tomed to do evil. 

Gen. u. 17 . This evil is fatal. “ In the day thou eat- 
est thereof, dying thou shalt die,” was the 
warning of faithful love to Adam, and upon the fall 
moral and spiritual death marched like a pestilence 
through man’s noble soul. The land was as the gar- 
den of Eden before it, and behind it a desolate wil- 
derness. Hence disease and decay, those symbols of a 
deeper malady. And sin when it is finished 
bringeth forth death. Death passes upon all 
men, for that all have sinned. And to those who die 
in their sins, this death of the body is the 
awful introduction of that second death, when 
“ whosoever not found written in the book of 
fife is cast into the lake of fire.” 

Let us then return to the question what is our own 
position by nature before God ? (O merciful Father, 
teach me who write and those who read these lines to 
know ourselves !) Does not that law of perfect love 
condemn us ? does it not bring us in guilty before 


James i. 15. 


Rom. V, 12. 


Rev. XX. 14 
& 15. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


43 


Him whose eyes are as a flame of Are ? have not we 
rebelled against the majesty of Jehovah ? have we not 
deeply wounded the paternal heart of Him who is in- 
finite love ? Alas, we have not escaped this universal 
corruption. We are convicts, self-condemned. We 
are sinners. Oh, to realize the true meaning of the 
word? When a man sins against his fellow, a child 
against his parent, a servant against his master, we 
appreciate the guilt. But who shall estimate the in- 
gratitude . of sin against God ? All other facts are 
trivial compared with this — we are sinners — for sin 
uncleansed and unchecked is present defilement and 
final death. 

Such is our position : a humiliating one in truth to 
the awakened conscience: guilty, and therefore crav- 
ing pardon ; weak, and therefore casting about for 
help ; in darkness, and therefore crying out for light. 
What must I do to be saved ? until this is answered, 
every other question is a grand impertinence — saved 
from sin, its guilt, its power, its issue? Lord, to 
whom shall we go ? the cry pierces heaven, and 
reaches the throne of the Eternal. Lord, to whom 
shall we go? and the response is given in the lively 
oracles of truth : “ There is no God else beside me, 
a just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me. 
Look unto me and he ye saved all the ends 21, 

of the earth, for I am God and there is none 
else.’’ 


44 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


CHAPTER IL 


And this brings me to the first great proposition I 
would establish — 

That Scripture^ in the Old and the New Testament 
alike^ detaches our ultimate confidence from man^ the 
creature^ and attaches it to Grod^ the Creator, 

This is enforced by three parallel lines of truth, (1) 
by contrasting the sinfulness and feebleness of mortal 
man with the goodness and omnipotence of the Eter- 
nal Jehovah; (2) by direct prohibition and precept; 
(3) by declaration of the awful jealousy of the Creator 
if any creature usurp His position in our affiance and 
in our regard. 

(1) The most casual glance at the contrast testi- 
mony of Scripture might convince us that such is the 
design of God. 


Scripture Testimony of Man. 

1 . 

We are but of yesterday 

And know nothing 

Because our days upon earth are a 
shadow. — Job viii. 9. 

2 . 

Ye are not able to do that thing 
which is least. — Ijuke xii. 26. 


Scripture Testimony to God. 

1 . 

Thou art from everlasting. — Ps. 
xciii. 2. 

All things naked to his eyes. — Heb. 
iv. 13. 

He inhabiteth eternity. — Isai. Ivii. 
16. 

2 . 

With God all things are possible. — 
Mat. xix. 26. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


45 


Scripture Testimony of Man. 

3. 

Thou art upon earth. — Ecc. v. 2. 

4. 

We that are in this tabernacle do 
groan, being burdened. — 2 Cor. 
V. 4. 

Them that dwell in houses of clay, 

Whose foundation is in the dust. 
Which are crushed before the moth. 
— Job iv. 19. 

5. 

The thoughts of man — are vanity. 
— Ps. xciv. 11. 

Let not the wise man glory in his 
wisdom. — Jer. ix. 23. 

He turneth wise men backward and 
maketh their knowledge fool- 
ish. — Isai. xliv. 25. 

6 . 

All flesh is grass, and all 
The goodliness thereof as tiie flower 
of the field. — Isai. xl. 6. 

7. 

There is none righteous, no, not one. 
— Rom. iii. 10. 


8 . 

The heart is deceitful above all 
things, and desperately wicked. 

Who can know it ? — Jer. xvii. 9. 

Man looketh on the outward ap- 
pearance. — 1 Sam. xvi. 7. 

9. 

A man that shall die. — Isai. li. 12. 

10 . 

In Him we live and move and have 
our being. — Acts xvii. 28. 


Scripture Testimony to God. 

3. 

God is in heaven. — ib. 

4. 

He stretcheth out the heavens as a 
curtain, and spreadeth them out 
as a tent to dwell in. — Isai. xl. 
22 . 

The heaven of heavens cannot con- 
tain thee. — 1 Kings viii. 27. 

God is a Spirit. — John iv. 24. 

The Lord God omnipotent. — Rev. 
xix. 6. 

5. 

The counsel of Jehovah standeth 
for ever. 

And the thoughts of his heart to all 
generations. — Ps. xxxiii. 11. 

The immutability of his counsel. — 
Heb. vi. 17. 

6 . 

The eternal God. — Deut. xxxiii. 27. 

The glory’of Jehovah shall, endure 
for ever — Ps. civ. 31. 

7. 

There is none holy as Jehovah. — 
1 Sam. ii. 2. 

There is none good but one, that is 
God. — Mat. xix. 17. 

8 . 

God is light and in Him is no dark- 
ness at all. — 1 John i. 5. 

I the Lord search the heart. — Jer. 
xvii. 10. 

But the Lord looketh at the heart. 
— 1 Sam xvi. 7. 

9. 

Who only hath immortality. — 1 
Tim. vi. 16. 

10 . 

The Father hath life in Himself. — 
John V. 26. 


46 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Scripture Testimony of Man. 

11 . 

Woe to him that striveth with his 
Maker! Shall the clay say to 
Him that fashioneth it, What 
makest Thou ? — Isai. xlv. 9. 


Scripture Testimony to God. 

11 . 

I have made the earth and created 
man upon it. — Isai. xlv. 12. 

He fashioneth the hearts (of the 
sons of men) alike. — Psalm 
xxxiii. 16. 


12 . 12 . 

0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. But in me is thy help. — ih. 
— Hosea xiii. 9. 


This testimony might be almost indefinitely pro- 
longed ; the above may suffice. But I would venture 
to draw your attention to three or four passages, where 
the contrast is forced upon our notice by the sacred 
writer himself. 

If, for example, we turn to the prayer of Moses, 
he reposes supreme trust in the Eternal — “ Lord, 
Thou hast been our dwelling place for all genera- 
tions. Before the mountains were brought forth or 
ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
Ps XC.1 2 from everlasting to everlasting, thou 

art God, — ” and contrasts this immutability 
of the Most High with the brief life of men — “ They 
are as a sleep : in the morning they are like grass 
^ ^ ^ which groweth up. In the morning it flour- 
isheth, and groweth up ; in the evening it is 
cut down and withereth.” * This was the lesson so of- 
ten and so painfully taught Israel of old, by a Father’s 
solemn chastisements and forgiving love. From fre- 
quent expostulations I select one : — “ W oe to them 
that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, 

* I would pray the reader to compare the way in which this same 
figure, this parable to all nations, is enlarged upon, Isai. xl. 6-8, and is 
enforced in the New Testament, 1 Pet. i. 24; James i. 10. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


47 


and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in 
horsemen because they are very strong, but they look 
not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither ^ ^ 

seek the Lord.” And what is the reason 
given ? “ Now the Egyptians are men and ^ ^ 

not God, and their horses flesh, and not 
Spirit.” And what is the urgent entreaty founded 
thereon ? “ Turn ye unto Him, from whom 

the children of Israel have deeply revolted.” 

Again, this message is sent to captive Zion : “I, even 
I am He that comforteth you. Who art thou, that 
thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of 
the son of man which shall be made as grass, and for- 
gettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretch- ^ 12 & 
ed forth the heavens and laid the foundations see v. 15. 
of the earth.” Observe, in all these passages, how 
much stress is laid on the creative power of God as 
proof of his infinite preeminence. The Maker alone 
is mighty to save. And if it be so in temporal de- 
liverances, how .much more in respect of that eternal 
salvation which must engross the regards of every 
thoughtful man, seeing that the Psalmist says of the 
rich men of earth, “ None can by any means redeem 
his brother, nor give to God a ransom for 
him, — for the redemption of their soul is 
precious.” “ But God,” as he shortly aflier cries in the 
rebounding exultation of faith, “ God will redeem my 
soul from the power of the grave, for He 
shall receive me.” 

( 2 ) Furthermore, the prohibitions and precepts are 
direct and express. “ Put not your trust in princes 
nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. His 
breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that 


Ps. xlix. 7, 8. 


48 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath 
the God of Jacob for liis help, and whose hope is in 
the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth, the 
Ps cxiTi 3- therein i*s, who keepeth tnith 

6- for ever.” So again, Isaiah having spoken 

of the fear of the Lord, and of the glory of his 
Majesty, says : “ Cease ye from man, whose breath is 
in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be ac- 
isaa. 11. 22. of?” I need not multiply pas- 

sages to prove that the explicit commands of Scripture 
with one consentient voice require in the words of 
St. Peter, that our “ faith and hope he in 

lPet.i. 21 . 

(3) But nothing can prove this fundamental truth 
more solemnly than the words heard by Moses on 
Sinai, “ Thou shalt worship no other God. For the 
Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous 
X. xxxiv. . Jealousy, as usually understood, is 

that peculiar imeasiness which arises from the fear that 
another may rob us of our due honor or affection. 
And with fallen man towards his fallen fellows this at- 
tribute of our being, from taking an exaggerated view 
of our own rights and claims, fi’om unduly depreci- 
ating those of others, and frequently from unjustly 
suspecting their innocent conduct, becomes the readiest 
vent for the outflowings of selfishness. And hence 
the ill name of jealousy. But not always even among 
men. Thus we speak of a man, jealous for the fair 
name and best interests of his friend ; as St. Paul says 
of the Corinthians, “ I am jealous over you 
2Cor. XI. 2. Godly jealousy.” And thus a man 

may he justly jealous of his own reputa- 
rov. xxii. . “good name which is rather to 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


49 


be chosen than great riches.” In this use it is closely 
allied to self-respect, and springs h’om a due sense of 
our own position and powers, of the claims which we 
have upon others, and of those mutual obligations, 
domestic, social, national, which lie upon us all. Now, 
in a sinless world, this estimate would be exactly true, 
and these requirements every moment perfectly satis- 
fied. But when sin breaks in, the claims of man on 
man are violated : and justice of necessity conceives a 
holy anger and a pure indignation at that which is 
unjust and unequal. We see a broken fragmentary 
image of it in man, like the sun struggling through 
mist, and reflected on agitated waters. But in God 
it is wdthout fault, or flaw, or cloud. He has an 
absolutely perfect knowledge of his own supreme 
majesty and goodness : He forms an absolutely perfect 
estimate of the claims that supremacy has on his 
creatures : and He conceives an absolutely perfect 
jealousy when those obligations are set at nought. 

Now, the Lord declares Himself to be Self-Existent 
fi’om eternity. Omnipresent, Immutable, Almighty, 
Incomprehensible, Omniscient, the Good One, the 
Holy One, the Creator, Preserver, and Administrator 
of all things in heaven and earth, the Searcher of 
hearts, and the Most High Judge of all. These 
attributes, indeed, would appertain to Him as govern- 
ing a world which sin had never defiled, and sorrow 
never darkened, and death never desolated. But 
when man had broken his commands, and trodden the 
seductive paths of disobedience and guilt, the Lord 
gives a farther and deeper revelation of his Divine 
goodness and grace. He reveals himself as the Alone 
Being who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, 


60 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


as the Alone Refuge for the fugitive, as the Alone 
Saviour, Deliverer, and Redeemer of his people, 
isai xxTi 4 Further, He claims the supreme depend- 

^20 S tiid love, worship, and service of his crea- 

V. 29 . tures. This you would not for a moment 
deny, so that you could without scruple subscribe to 
the language of the Church of England, “ my duty to 
God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him 
with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my 
soul, and with all my strength ; to worship him, to give 
him thanks, to put my whole trust in him ; to call 
upon him, to honor his holy name and his word. 
Church serve him truly all the days of my 

Catechism. life.’^ 

But how does He regard it if any creature usurp 
his rightful prerogatives and steal away the homage of 
our hearts from Him who says, “ I am Jehovah ; that 
is my name : and my glory will I not give to 
isai. xiii. 8. 9 » answer in the language 

of Scripture : — “ Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the 
man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, 
and whose heart departeth from the Lord : for he shall 
be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when 
good cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places 
in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and 
whose hope the Lord is : for he shall be as a tree 
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots 
by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but 
her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the 
year of drought, neither shall cease from 

Jer. xTii. &-8. o *^ 5 } 

yielding frmt. 

It is impossible in a brief treatise to exhibit the 


THE EOCK OF AGES. 


61 


strength of this declaration. These verses do not stand 
isolated from the rest of Scripture. They only gather 
up and present to us, in a few words, its concurrent 
testimony from Genesis to Revelation. (O Lord, 
cleanse Thou the thoughts of our hearts from all crea- 
ture confidence, by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, 
that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily mag- 
nify thy Holy Name !) For this truth stands on the 
fore-front of the temple of Religion ; “I am 
God, and there is none else.” The dedica- 
tion stone bears this golden inscription — “To the 
Alone Supreme, Eternal Jehovah.” And as you bow 
low within its holy precincts, this is the first and great 
commandment — “ Thou shalt have none other Gods 
but Me.” And the response of eveiy faithful wor- 
shipper is in the spirit of the Levitical adoration — 
“ O Lord our God, blessed be thy glorious name, 
which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou, 
even thou, art Lord alone : thou hast made heaven, the 
heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and 
all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is 
therein, and thou preservest them all ; and ^ ^ 
the host of heaven worshippeth Thee. Thou 
art the Lord.” Such adoration as is reechoed in the 
courts of heavenly glory — “ Thou art worthy, O 
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power ; for 
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleas- 
ure they are, and were created.” 


Rev. iv. 11. 


62 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


CHAPTER III. 

I WOULD proceed then to my second proposition : — 

That Scripture^ in the Old and New Testament alike^ 
requires us to repose our ultimate confidence in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, 

Or in other words, I maintain that Scripture brings 
before us One mysterious Person, the Son of God, the 
Son of man, in wondrous union with the Father, but 
of distinct personality from the Father, to whom aU 
these Divine attributes are ascribed, and who claims 
and receives, without protest, yea, as his just and in- 
alienable right, equal trust, adoration, love, and service, 
with him who says, “I am Jehovah, my Name is Jeal- 
ous, and my glory will I not give to another.” 

That the personality of the Father and the Son is 
distinct, and that they are neither to be identified nor 
confounded, is so self-evident a truth, and is so seldom 
denied by those to whom I write, that two or three 
Scripture proofs will abundantly suffice. At his bap- 
tism and transfiguration the voice of the Father was 
Mat. iii. 17 , heard saying of him, “ This is my beloved 
andxvii.6. ^ whom I am well pleased.” Jesus 

addresses his Father in prayer. Jesus says, “ It is 
written in your law. The testimony of two men is true. 
John Tin. 17, ^ witness of myself, and the 

Father that sent me beareth witness of me : ” 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


53 


and further, which is incontrovertible evidence — for 
the will is the essence of personality — “I came down 
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the 
will of him that sent me.” But the tenets 
of Noetus and Sabellius, who denied this truth, are so 
rarely affirmed by Unitarians, that with this brief no- 
tice I may at once proceed to bring scriptural testimony 
of all Divine attributes being predicated of the Son. 

For is the Father Ftemal ? Bethlehem was the pre- 
dicted birthplace into our world of One “ whose goings 
forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” v. 2. 
The word who was made flesh and dwelt 
among us “ was in the beginning with God : ” John i. 2 & 14. 
and Himself assumes the incommunicable 
coetemal Name, I AM. And He who ap- 
peared in vision to John in Patmos like unto the Son of 
man, declares, “ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is 
to come, I am the first and the laet.* I am j 13^ 
He that hveth and was dead, and behold I 
am alive for evermore.” 

Is the Father Omni]present ? Jesus says, 
two or three are gathered together in my 
name there am I in the midst of them.” 

“ There I am, not there I will be, referring to his Di- 
vine presence at all times. Two or three of his people 
(says Scott) may be thus met together in ten thousand 
places all over the earth at the same time, this must 
therefore be allowed to be a direct assertion of his om- 
nipresent Deity. Again, ‘ Lo, I am with you 

, n,x Mat. xviii. 20. 

alway, even unto the end ot the world. Is 


17, 18. 

Cf. ch. u. 8. 

“ Where 

Mat. xriii. 20. 


* “ The strongest assertion that eternity past and to come belongs to 
Himself.” — Dwight. Compare Isai. xlviii. 12. 


54 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


not this a positive declaration that He is with the 
apostles and succeeding ministers always unto the end 
of the world ? But who can be so in all the separate 
and distinct regions in which they preached and do 
preach, except that Divine Being who filleth all things, 
that Divine Essence which occupies all space, that God 
who is a Spirit.” * 

Is the Father Immutable ? “ Jesus Christ 

is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” 
and, “ Unto the Son He saith, .... Thou, 
. . art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” 
Father Almighty? Creation demands om- 
nipotence — “ All things were made by him.” 
The sustentation of all things demands om- 
nipotence — “ By him all things consist.” 
Universal government demands omnipotence — “ All 
authority in heaven and earth is given unto 
him.” Coextensive operation with God the 
Father in a boundless empire demands omnipotence, 
and Jesus Christ, when explaining his words. My 


Heb. xiii. 8. 

Heb. i. 8, 10, 
12 . 

Lord, . . 
Is the 

John i. 3. 
Col. i. 17. 


Mat. xxviii. 
18. 


* Sellon’s Treatise on the Deity of Christ, p. 22. The Unitarian sug- 
gestion that the end of the world signifies the end of the Jewish age, while 
it does not disprove the above argument, for such unfailing presence of a 
mere man with his apostles in their wide-spread evangelistic labors was as 
impossible for forty years as for eighteen centuries, is negatived by the 
only other instances of St. Matthew’s use of this phrase rj awTeXeia tov 
aluvoc, ch. xiii. 39, 40, 49, where it plainly indicates the final day of judg- 
ment: and ch. xxiv. 3, where a careful consideration of the twofold ques- 
tion of the disciples, founded on the twofold declaration ch. xxiii. 38, 39, 
and of the twofold answer it receives, proves that the end of the world 
respects the second advent of Christ in glory. The further suggestion that 
the promise, “ Lo, I am with you alway,” was fulfilled to St. Paul and 
others by the invisible bodily presence of Christ is refuted by St. Peter, 
who says of him, “ Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the 
restitution of all things ” — Acts iii. 21, and by Christ Himself, who says, 
“ And now I am no more in the world ” — John xvii. 11. See Dwight on 
this passage. 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


65 


Father worketh hitherto and I work, declares, “ What 
things soever He (the Father) doeth, these John v. 17 - 
also doeth the Son likewise.” And a careful 
comparison of Rev. i. 8, with v. 13, 17, ch. ii. 8, xxii. 
13, need, as it seems to me, leave no doubt upon our 
mind that the Son of man declares of himself, “ I am 
the Almighty.” 

Is the Father Himself Incomprehensible while co'irir 
prehending all things? St. Peter said to our Lord 
absolutely, without quahfication, and with reference 
to that prerogative of omniscience, heart-knowledge, 
“ Lord, Thou knowest all things.” And 
Christ Jesus says of himself, “No man know- 
eth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man 
the Father save the Son, and he to whom the 
Son will reveal Him.” “ In this passage 
both the omniscience and incomprehensibility of Christ 
are declared by himself. He who knows the Father 
is omniscient ; He who is known only by the 
Father is incomprehensible.” Also, he says. 

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I 
the Father. The riches of Christ are de- 
clared to be unsearchable. His love passeth 
knowledge. And, In him are hid all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

Is the Father infinitely Good and Holyf 
“ there is none good but one, that is God,” 
and again, “ there is none holy, save Jeho- 
vah.” Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” 
(6 TTOLffiv 6 /caXof) the absolutely good one. Jesus is 
called, “the Holy One and the Just — the one Acts m. 14 , 
who knew no sin — without sin, without 
spot — holy, harmless, undefiled — J esus 


John xzi. 17. 


Dwigh^ 
Tol. ii. 77. 


Eph. iii. 8, 
19. 


Col. ii. 3. 


SO 


that 


Mat. adbc. 17. 


&c. 

Heb. vii. 26. 


56 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Col. i. 16. 


John i. 3. 
Heb. i. 3. 
John i. 4. 


1 John ii. 2 , Christ the righteous, in whom is no sin — full 
of grace and truth.” 

Is the Father the Creator^ Preserver^ and Grovernor of 
all things in heaven and earth f Jesus is the Creator, 
for “ by him (the Son of his love) were all things cre- 
ated that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible 
and invisible, whether they he thrones, or dominions, 
or principalities, or powers : all things were 
created by him and for him.” And without 
him (the Word) was not even one thing made that 
hath been made. Jesus Christ is the Pre- 
server: for He, the Son, upholds all things 
by the word of his power. In him was life, 
and the life was the light of men — and he- 
johnxiv.ig ^ live, He says, ye shall live also. Jesus 

is the supreme Governor : for to the Son He 
Heb. i. 8. saith. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
ever. He is over all, God blessed for ever. 
He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And 
his dominioQ is an everlasting dominion which shall not 
Dan. Tii. 14, pass away, and his kingdom that which shall 
Luke u. 33. not be destroyed. 

Is the Father the Searcher of hearts? “These things 
saith the Son of God .... all the churches shall know 
Rev.ii. 23 . that I am He who searcheth the reins and 
John ii. 24 hearts ; ” and He, writes St. John, knew all 
and 25. men, and needed not that any should testify 
of man, for He knew what was in man. 

Is the Father the Most High Judge of all? Jesus 
Christ likewise stands forth as the appointed Judge of 
all men. For it is written, “We must all 
appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” 
And “ when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. 


Rom. ix. 5. 
Rev. six. 16. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


57 


and all the holy angels with him, then shall He 
sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall 
be gathered all nations, and He shall separate xxv. 3i, 
them one from another.” 

Here then we have all* the essential attributes of 
Godhead ascribed to Christ : and this, not in one or 
two obscure passages, but by a general consensus of 
those holy men who spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. Many other proof texts of similar char- 
acter, if space had permitted, might have been brought 
forward. But these suffice. What do you who are 
seeking the Lord learn from them of your relation to 
Jesus Christ ? He stands forth before you, who are 
but of yesterday, as Himself from everlast- 

• 1 /* T_ Jot) Tlii. 9. 

mg: before you, whose life is a vapor, as 
having life in Himself : before you, who are tied to a 
narrow spot of earth, as Omnipresent ; before you, a mu- 
table man, as unchangeably the same : before you, who 
without him can do nothing, as Almighty : ^ ^ 

before you, who are not sufficient to think 
anything of yourself, as the Omniscient One 
whose riches are unsearchable : before you, frail and 
defective, as the Holy and the Just One without sin : 
before you, a creature of the dust, as your Creator : 
before you, whose goodliness is as the flower of the 
field, as your Preserver : and before you, who confess 
your feebleness in self-government, your short-sighted- 
ness in self-knowledge, and your reliance on a court 
of final appeal, as the Ruler of all things, the Searcher 

* The only attribute ascribed to the Father, and not ascribed to Christ 
in Scripture is, so far as I am aware, “ Invisible^ But having proved that 
in his Divine nature He is incomprehensible, the reason of this is manifest 
from the character He sustains as the medium of communication betwixt 
the Creator and the creatures of his hand. 

3 * 


58 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


of all hearts, and the Judge of all men. Can it he, 
that in the presence of such infinite goodness and gloiy, 
no feelings of adoration arise in your heart ? It is not 
that He is at an immeasurable distance from you, so 
that what He is and what you are, have no intimate 
connection. But He made you, sustains you, watches 
you. The offices He fills towards you are those of 
God. And He is so unutterably good and gracious. 
What remains ? If you believe this testimony, you 
must confide in him — you must love him — you must 
adore him. No other feelings than those of entire reli- 
ance and supreme love would at all answer the claims 
of such an one upon you. And they are the Scriptures 
of truth which, by portraying so gracious a Lord, have 
elicited that confidence and warranted that affection. 

But this is not all. Thus far we might argue with 
unfallen beings, and thus might urge those holy intelli- 
gences who left not their first estate, to obey the Di- 
vine command, “ Let all the angels of God 

Heb. i. 6. . . 

worship Him. Let us remember our posi- 
tion before God, fallen, guilty, strengthless, and as 
reasonable beings, inquiring with the deepest anxiety, 
“ What must I do to be saved ? ” Now it is not too 
much to say that the hopes of all mankind with regard 
to salvation, from the wreck of Paradise lost to the 
prophetic vision of Paradise restored, are fixed on this 
mysterious Son of Man. On Him, as the seed of the 
woman who should bruise the head of the 
Gen. lu. 15. gej.pejit . the Lord whose future advent 
Jude 14. cheered the saintly Enoch : as the living Re- 
deemer on whom the patriarch Job rested his hopes 
Job six. 25. of immortality: as the son of Abraham, a 
benefactor, in whom all the families of the 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


59 


earth should be blessed : as the Shiloh of Ja- Oen. xxii . 18. 
cob’s dying bed : as the angel of the burning Gen. xUx. lo. 
bush and of the fiery pillar ; as the Captain ex. in. 2 , and 
who fought for Israel and nerved the arm of xxhi. k. 
her warriors : as the Begotten Son of God, 
the assessor of His throne, the Priest for ever, 
predicted by the sweet Psalmist of Israel : as 
the virgin-born Emmanuel, foretold by Isaiah, 

o ^ J ^ Isai. vii. 14 

the child endowed with a name of lustrous and ix. b. 
Deity, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace ; as 

. . Jer. xxiii. 6. 

the Lord our righteousness, anticipated by 
Jeremiah : as the appearance of a man on the ^ 
sapphire throne, seen in vision by Ezekiel: 
as the Messiah announced to Daniel who should be cut 
off hut not for Himself, and should bring in ix. 24 , 
everlasting righteousness : as the desire of all 
nations, of whom Haggai wrote : and as the 
Sun of righteousness, seen from afar by Malachi, who 
should rise on the benighted world with heal- 

tt- o Mai. iv. 2 . 

ing in his wings : — on Him, from age to age 

the faith of every behever was fastened, by promise 

and by prophecy. 

Let me, ere I pass on, select two passages from the 
Old Testament for your careful consideration. That 
same Psalm which proclaims the Divine decree — 
“ Jehovah hath said unto me. Thou art my ^ 
Son, this day have I begotten thee,” — closes 
thus — “ Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and ye per- 
ish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in 
him.” Bemember the solemn denunciation, “ Cursed 
be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his 


60 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


arm.” Is there not food here for the most thoughtful 
inquiry ? How can you reconcile these texts ? I ven- 
ture to assert only in the Gospel of the Son of God. 

Again, if you turn to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, 
Isa- lii- 6 find, “ All we like sheep have gone astray, 

we have turned every one to his own way.” 
Comprehensive words ! embracing the transgressions 
of six thousand years. If the sins of those many gen- 
erations were gathered togetlier, how vast the accumu- 
lation, how insufferable the load of guilt ! It is done : 
for Scripture continues, “ The Lord hath laid on (hath 
made to meet on) him the iniquity of us all.” On him : 
isai. xiii. 1 . whom ? On the chosen servant of God in 
whom his soul delighteth, but whose visage 
isai. In. 14. ‘g niarred more than any man — on one 

who grows up as a tender plant, who is despised and 

rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief. On him, the sins of all were laid. He 
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised 
for our iniquities.* But can He sustain the load ? 
Remember how earnest and awakened men would hold 
their breath in suspense, to catch an answer on 
which an immortality of weal or woe depended. Can 
He endure the burden ? He can : He dies in the 

endurance. His soul is made an "offering for sin. 


* Nay, more — It is, not only that He was (v. 3) acquainted with grief, 
but (v. 10) the Lord hath put him to grief; not only (v. 6) He was bruised 
for our iniquities, but (v. 10) it pleased the Lord to bruise him: not only 
(v. 12) He bare the sin of many, but (v. 6) the Lord hath laid on him 
the iniquity of us all: not only (v. 7) He is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter, but (v. 10) Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. If 
Jesus were only a spotless, sinless man, offering no vicarious atonement, 
how was it that a holy and just God — we will not say permitted such 
sufferings to light upon a perfectly innocent being, — but Himself caused 
him to suffer? 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


61 


But death is swallowed up in victory. He isai. xxv. 8. 
lives — He sees his seed. The pleasure of the Lord 
prospers in his hand. He sees of the travail of his 
soul, and is satisfied — our Redeemer, our Mediator, 
our Advocate. I beseech you, my friends, to weigh 
that chapter on your knees. See you not, how 
the confidence of all mankind centres and clusters 
around that spontaneous victim, that dying man, that 
triumphant Saviour ? The Lord grant that this same 
Scripture which was the message of life to the eunuch 
of Ethiopia, may lead you to believe with all ^cts viii. 32 - 
your heart in the Divinity of the Son of God ! 

But now let us follow the course of history. At 
length the fulness of the time was come, and 
God sent forth his Son. Are not the eyes 
of all designedly pointed to him ? Angels from heaven 
announce the glad tidings. Unto you is born ^ 
a Saviour : simple shepherds salute him : and 

, • 1_ • u * TT Mat. ii. 11. 

eastern wise men worship him. He grows 
up as foretold, a despised Nazarene. But at his bap- 
tism, the heavens are opened, the Spirit of God de- 
scends like a dove upon him, and the voice of the 
Eternal Father proclaims, “ This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

Soon the devil assaults him — and angels 
minister to him, their Lord. His herald points him 
out, “ Behold the Lamb of God which taketh 
away the sin of the world.” He speaks 
man never spake. He works wonders of good- 
ness and of grace, such as man never wrought. 

He introduces a morality of unequalled simplicity and 
purity and worth. He preaches the glad tidings of 
the kingdom of heaven. But his own received him 


62 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


, « ... not. He is betrayed, condemned, and cruci- 

1 Pet. m. 18. 1 • 

fied. He dies, the Just for the unjust. He 
John X. 18. down his life. He has power to take it 

again. He rises. He ascends to the right hand of 

^ God. There He receives gifts for men. He 

sheds forth his Spirit. He gives repentance 
Acts V. 31. remission of sins. He ever lives to make 

Heb. vu. 25. jntercession for us. He is preparing a place 
in glory for his children : and thence He shall shortly 
come again and take us unto himself, that 

John xiy. 1-3. , xx • . i t ^ 

where He is there we may be also. 

Who, I ask, can believe this simple story of redeem- 
ing grace, and not repose their whole confidence in 
this Saviour ? Who can refi’ain fi-om trusting him 
with supreme rehance? Who can forbear loving him 
with the most absorbing love ? If Scripture forbade 
these emotions, as being due only to the infinite 
Father, what force we must lay upon ourselves to 
prevent them springing up in the trustful heart. But 
does Scripture forbid them? nay, verily. Prophecy, 
as we have seen, foretold that thus it should be, and 
blessed the confidence. And when the Saviour walked 
our fallen world, suppliant smners worship him, and 
He refuses it not. They put their whole trust in him, 
johnix 35- declares it not only suitable but 

essential. Upon it hangs eternity. “ God 
so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have eternal life.” But is this 
trust altogether identical with that we are 
required to repose in the Father ? It is one and the 
same. He says, “ Believe in God : believe 

John xir. 1. , . ,, . ... . 

also m me. His invitations penetrate the 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


63 


weary heart — “ Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ^ ” Mat xi 28 
and his words fall like dew on the parched 
and thirsty soul — “If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me and drink.” He insists 
that “ all men should honor the Son, even John v. 23. 
as they honor the Father.” He concentrates 
the affection and the affiance of his people 
upon himself as the one Mediator. He in- 
vites us to offer up our prayers in his prev- 
alent name. And finally, he assures us, “He 
gives eternal life ” unto his own disciples, John x. 28. 
and “ will raise them up at the last day.” John vi. 40. 

And after his ascension to glory, what is the conduct 
and the testimony of his chosen apostles ? In the name 
of Jesus Christ they do all their mighty works. For 
Jesus Christ’s sake they suffer the loss of all things. 
They uniformly preach Jesus Christ : and the Holy 
Spirit seals their message. They know noth- 
ing among men, but J esus Christ and Him ^ 
crucified. Yea, I should have to transcribe a great 
portion of the Epistles if I wanted to transfer to these 
pages all the evidence those letters afford, that Scrip- 
ture requires us to repose our supreme reliance on the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The most casual glance might 
make us suspect, that a name which meets our eye 
every few lines was none other than that of the Divine 
Saviour of the world. Why else its perpetual recur- 
rence? A deeper search only confirms this. Take 
for instance the first few verses of the epistle to the 
Ephesians : — 

1 . “ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of 
God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the 
faithful in Christ Jesus : 


64 


THE KOCK OP AGES. 


2. “ Grace be to you, and peace, from God our 
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed u's with all spiritual 
blessings in heavenly places in Christ : 

4. “ According as He hath chosen us in him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, 
and without blame before him in love : 

5. “ Having predestinated us according to the adop- 
tion of children, according to the good pleasure of his 
will, 

6. “To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein 
He hath' made us accepted in the Beloved : 

7. “ In whom we have redemption through his 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the 
riches of his grace.” 

The privileges are surpassingly great, but mark how 
they are all ours in Christ. It is the apostle of Jesus 
Christ who writes. The Church is described as the 
faithful “ in Christ Jesus.” The benediction is given 
from God our Father, and coordinately “ from the 
Lord Jesus Christ.” God is praised : it is as “ the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” All 
spiritual blessings are ours : they are ours “ in Christ.” 
We are chosen: it is “in Him.” We are predes- 
tinated unto the adoption of children : it is “by 
Jesus Christ.” We are accepted: it is “ in the Be- 
loved.” We have redemption, even the forgiveness of 
sins: it is “in Him through his blood.” We are 
indebted to Christ for all. We are compelled to look 
up unto him, and say — “ O Lord, my trust is in 
Thee.” 

The force of this reasoning wiU appear more strong- 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


65 


ly, if you attempt to substitute here for the name of 
Jesus that of any man, however exalted and self- 
devoted, or of any creature, however lofty in the scale 
of creation. Make the trial. Read the passage given 
above, substituting the name of Michael the archangel, 
or of Moses the legal mediator, or of Stephen who 
sealed his witness with his blood, for that only “ name 
under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved.” You cannot do it. You stop 
short. It is an intolerable discord. It is blasphemy. 
For you feel this would be reposing in the creature an 
exhaustive confidence due only to the Infinite Creator, 
and offering to man a supreme gratitude which is the 
prerogative of God our Saviour. 

Such passages might be easily multiplied. I would 
mention the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, of St. Peter’s first Epistle, of St. John’s first 
Epistle ; — I study all, and in all I find Jesus my Sav- 
iour. Do you admit the cry of the awakened con- 
science is “ What must I do to be saved ? ” You must 
acknowledge that the reply of the New Testament 
from end to end, — from the angel’s message to Joseph, 
“Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for He 
shall save his people from their sins,” to the 
ascription of praise recorded by the aged John in 
Patmos, “ To Him who loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and our Father ” — the reply, I say^ 
is plain and unhesitating, “ Believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” 

It is not only that one of illimitable goodness and 
infinite perfections, your Creator and Preserver, stands 
before you, a man of limited and finite capacities ; but 


66 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


He presents himself to you fallen, and guilty, and lost, 
as one who is able and willing to raise you from the 
lowest depths of sin and make you members of a Royal 
Priesthood, and cause you to reign with him among the 
sons of light for ever and for ever. No utterance but 
one hke Mary’s satisfies his claims : “ My 
Luke 1.47. rcjoiccd in God my Saviour.” 

The Lord grant unto you and me like precious faith, 
that resting on these exceeding great and precious 
2 Pet. i. 1 4 promises, an entrance may be ministered unto 
us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ ! 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


67 


CHAPTER IV. 

The preceding truths will have prepared the way 
for my third proposition: — 

That Scripture in the Old and the New Testament 
alike^ proves the coequal Deity of Jesus Christ with that 
of the Eternal Father : 

by a comparison of the attributes, the majesty, and 
the claims of the Father and the Son ; 

by the appearances of God to the Old Testament 
saints ; 

by the direct and Divine worship paid to Christ ; 

by the conjunction of the Father and the Son in 
Divine offices ; 

by explicit assertions that Christ is Jehovah and 
God. 

And here I would ask your further honest application 
of that great principle of heavenly scholarship, “ the 
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” For just as 
in algebra, from the combination of two known quanti- 
ties the unknown is found out ; as in trigonometry, if 
out of the six parts of a triangle any three, one being 
a side, are given, the others are discoverable, from 
which simple law have resulted all the triumphs of 
astronomy ; so in searching the Scriptures, those hum- 
ble students who receive the words not which man’s 
wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost ^acheth, 


68 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


prayerfully comparing and combining them, shall know 
icor u 12 things which are freely given to us of 

’ ’ God. 

(1) I would first then place side by side the witness 
of Scripture to the attributes, the majesty, and the 
claims of the Father and the Son. Only a selection 
from the abundant materials could of course be made. 
I have exercised a rigid caution in the verses adduced 
in testimony of Christ, setting many aside which I 
fully believe bear witness of him. But, if after candid 
investigation you think one, or more than one, inap- 
plicable to the Messiah, I pray you draw your pencil 
through those which may seem to you even ambiguous. 
Sufficient, and more than sufficient will, I am per- 
suaded, remain uncancelled. Some marked with an 
asterisk are discussed or illustrated in other portions of 
this treatise, and will be easily found by a reference to 
the Scripture Index at the close. I earnestly ask your 
calm, dispassionate collation of these passages: and I 
pray you, whilst you proceed, to suffer the full weight 
of these solemn words to rest upon your mind and 
memory, “I am Jehovah — that is my name, and my 
glory will I not give to another.” 

ScriptureTestimony to God the Father, Scripture Testimony to Christ.* 

or to God absolutely. 

1 . 1 . 

From everlasting to everlasting thou Whose goings forth have been from 
art God. — Ps. xc. 2. of old, from everlasting. — Mic. 

V. 2. 

* In some of the passages in the left hand column, I believe the primary 
reference to be not to the Father but to the Son, but this does not invali- 
date the testimony to be derived from them, as in every case the witness 
is said to be of God, or of the Lord Jehovah, and no one who denied the 
Deity of Christ could maintain that a single passage there adduced desig- 
nates the Messiah, without contradicting himself. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


69 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father, 
or to God absolutely. 

Thy throne is established of old; 
Thou art from everlasting. — 
Ps. xciii. 2. 

I am the first, and I am the last, and 
besides me there is no God. — 
Isai. xliv. 6. 

2 . 

Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith 
the Lord? — Jer. xxiii. 24. 


The Lord, He it is that doth go before 
thee — He will be with thee. He 
will not fail thee. — Deut. xxxi. 

8 . 

8 . 

I am Jehovah — I change not. — 
Mai. iii. 6. 

4. 

I am the Almighty God. — Gen. xvii. 

1 . 

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that 
did He in heaven and in earth. 
— Ps. cxxxv. 6. 

6. 

Canst thou by searching find out 
God? — xi. 7. 

As the Father knoweth me. — John 
X. 15. 

0 the depth of the riches, both of 

the wisdom and knowledge of 
God! His ways past finding 
out {dve^LxvLaaroL trackless). — 
Rom. xi. 33. 

Thy footsteps (rd Ixvrj aov—LXX.) 
are not known. — Ps. Ixxvii. 19. 

6 . 

1 am the Lord, the Holy One (6 dyioq 

— LXX.) of Israel. — Isai. xliii. 
3. 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 


Unto the Son he saith, thy throne, 
0 God, is for ever and ever. — 
Heb. i. 8. 

I am the first and the last. I am He 
that liveth and was dead. — Rev, 
i. 17, 18. 

2 . 

He that descended is the same also 
that a.scended up far above all 
heavens, that He might fill all 
things. — Eph. iv. 10. 

* Lo, I am with you alway, even 

unto the end of the world. — 
Mat. xxviii. 20. 

3. 

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, 
to-day, and for ever. — Heb. xiii. 

8 . 

4. 

* I am .... the Almighty. — Rev. 

i. 8. 

Whatsoever things He doeth, these 
also doeth the Son likewise. — 
John V. 19. 

6 . 

No man knoweth the Son but the 
Father. — Mat. xi. 27. 

Even so know I the Father. — John 
X. 16. 

The unsearchable [dve^ixviaoTov) 
riches of Christ. — Eph. iii. 8. 


The love of Christ which passeth 
knowledge. — Eph. iii. 19. 

6 . 

Ye denied the Holy One (rdv dyLOv) 
and the Just. — Acts iii. 14. 


ro 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father^ 
or to God absolutely. 

A God of truth, and without iniqui- 
ty. — Deut. xxxii. 4. 

7. 

In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth. — Gen. 
i. 1. 

I am Jehovah that maketh all things, 
that stretcheth forth the heav- 
ens alone, that spreadeth abroad 
the earth by Myself. — Isai. 
xliv. 24. 

The Lord hath made all things for 
Himself. — Prov. xvi. 4. 

8 . 

Thou preservest them all. — A^eA. 
ix. 6. 

In Him we live. — Acts xvii. 28. 


9. 

The King of kings, and Lord of 
lords. — 1 Tim. vi. 15. 

Thy kingdom is an everlasting king- 
dom, and thy dominion endur- 
eth throughout all generations. 
— Ps. cxlv. 13. 

10 . 

Thou, even Thou only, knowest the 
hearts of all the children of 
men. — 1 Kings viii. 39. 

11 . 

Shall not the Judge of all the earth 
do right ? — Gen. xviii. 25. 


12 . 

His kingdom ruleth over all. — 
Ps. ciii. 19. 


Scripture Testimony to Chinst. 


I am . . . the Truth. — John xiv. 6. 

Without sin. — Heb. iv. 15. 

7. 

In the beginning was the Word. All 
things were made by Him. — 
John. i. 1, 3. 

By Him were all things created, 
that are in heaven and that are 
in earth, visible and invisible, 
whether thrones, or dominions, 
or principalities, or powers : 

All things were created by him and 
for him. — Col. i. 16. 

8 . 

By Him all things consist. — Col. i. 
17. 

Because I live, ye shall live also. — 
John xiv. 19. 

9. 

King of kings, and Lord of lords. — 
Rev. xix. 16. 

His dominion is an everlasting do- 
minion .... and his kingdom 
that which shall not be de- 
stroyed. — Dan. vii. 14. 

10 . 

All the churches shall know that I 
am He that searcheth the reins 
and hearts. — Rev. ii. 23. 

11 . 

We must all appear before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. — 2 Cor. v. 
10 . 

12 . 

He is Lord of all. — Acts x. 36. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


71 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father, 
or to God absolutely. 

The Lord shall be king over all the 
earth. In that day there shall 
be one Lord, and his name one. 
— Zeeh. xiv. 9. 

Thou whose name alone is Jehovah, 
art the most high over all the 
earth. — Ps. Ixxxiii. 18. 


13. 

Upon the wicked He shall rain 
snares, (or quick burning coals,) 
fire and brimstone, and an hor- 
rible (or a burning) tempest. — 
Ps. xi. 6. 

Vengeance is mine; I will repay, 
saith the Lord. — Rom. xii. 19. 

The day of wrath and revelation of 
the righteous judgment of God. 
— Rom. ii. 5. 


14. 

Behold the Lord God will come with 
strong hand — His reward is 
with him. — Isai. xl. 10. 

Thou renderest to every man ac- 
cording to his work. — Ps. Ixii. 
12 . 

15. 

To whom then will ye liken God ? — 
Isai. xl. 18. 

Thee, the only true God {rhv pbvov 
ukT]-&Lvbv Oeov) [and Jesus 
Christ whom Thou hast sent.] 
— John xvii. 3. 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 

* To us there is but one Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom are all things, 
and we by Him. — 1 Cor. viii. 6. 

God hath given Him a name which 
is above every name. — Phil. ii. 

9. 

That in all things he might have the 
pre-eminence. — Col. i. 18. 

13. 

The Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with His mighty 
angels, in flaming fire. 

Taking vengeance on them that 
know not God. — 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. 

And from the wrath of the Lamb, 
for the great day of His wrath 
is come and who shall be able 
to stand? — Rev. vi. 16, 17. 

14. 

Behold, I come quickly, and my re- 
ward is with me, to give 

Every man according as his work 
shall be. — Rev. xxii. 12. 


15. 

The image of the invisible God. — 
Col. i. 15. 

The express image of his Person. — 
Heb. i. 3. 

* . . . . His Son, Jesus Christ. 
This (person) is the true God 
(ovrof koTiv 6 dhjTjivdc 0e6f) 
and eternal life. — 1 John v. 20. 


72 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father, 
or to God absolutely. 

16. 

The Lord thy God, to him shalt thou 
cleave. — Deut. x. 20. 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling- 
place for all generations. — 
Fs. xc. 1. 

From Me is thy fruit found. — Ebsea 
xiv. 8. 

17. 

Strengthen Thou me according to 
Thy word. — Ps. cxix. 28. 

• 

18. 

Lord, my hope is in Thee. — Ps. 
xxxix, 7. 

‘ 19. 

The Lord did ... set His love 
upon you and choose you . . . 
because the Lord loved you. — 
Pent. vii. 7, 8. 

The Lord’s portion is His people. — 
Deut. xxxii. 9. 


20 . 

I, even I, am Jehovah, and beside 
Me there is no Saviour. 

— beside Me no Saviour — 

— beside Me no Saviour — 


— beside Me no Saviour — 


beside Me no Saviour — 


— beside Me no Saviour — 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 


16. 

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the 
branch cannot bear fruit except 
it abide in the vine, no more 
can ye except ye abide in Me, 
.... for without Me ye can do 
nothing. — John xv. 4, 5. 

17. 

I can do all things through Christ 
that strengtheneth me. — Phil. 
iv. 13. 

18. 

Jesus Christ, which is our hope. — 
1 Tim. i. 1. 

19. 

I have chosen you. — John xv. 16. 


In my name, because ye belong to 
Christ {XpLGTOv koTe). — Mark 
ix. 41. 

20 . 

Jesus, for He shall save his people 
from their sins. — Mat. i. 21. 

Christ Jesus came into the woidd to 
save sinners. — 1 Tim. i. 15. 

We believe that through the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ we 
shall be saved. — Acts xv. 11. 

He is the Author of eternal salvation 
unto all them that obey Him. — 
Eeb. V. 9. 

He is able to save to the uttermost 
those that come unto God by 
Him. — Eeb. vii. 26. 

Jesus who delivered us from the 
wrath to come. — 1 Thess. i. 10. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


73 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father^ 
or to God absolutely. 

— beside Me no Saviour — 

— beside Me no Saviour — 

Isai. xliii. 11. 


21 .' 

All flesh shall know that I am the 
Lord thy Saviour, 

And thy Redeemer, 

The mighty one of Israel. 

Isai. xlix. 16. 

Let Israel hope in Jehovah . . . . 
and He shall redeem Israel from 
all his iniquities {koX abrbg 
XvrpuaeTai rdv ’lupa^A kK naauv 
Twv dvopujv avrov. LXX.) — 
Ps. cxxx. 8. 

22 . 

With Thee is the fountain of life, in 
thy light shall we see light. — 
Ps. xxxvi. 9. 

23. 

He (Jehovah of hosts) will swallow 
up death in victory. — Isai. x:s.y. 

8 . 

I will ransom them from the power 
of the grave; I will redeem 
them from death: 0 death, I 
will be thy plagues ; 0 grave, I 
will be thy destruction. — jBo- 
sea xiii. 14. 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 


Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
— 2 Pet. iii. 18. 

Neither is there salvation in any 
other, for there is no other name 
under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved. — 
Acts iv. 12. 

21 . 

* Our great God and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, 

Who gave Himself for us. 

That He might redeem us from all 
iniquity (Iva 2,VTpC)ayTaL fjpdg 
and ndayc dvofuag ). — Tit. ii. 
13, 14. 

22 . 

In Him (the Word) was life, and the 
life was the light of men. — 
John i. 4. 

23. 

Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath 
abolished death. — 2 Tim. i. 10. 

That through -death He (Jesus) 
might destroy him that had the 
power of death, that is the devil, 
and deliver them who through 
fear of death were all their life- 
time subject to bondage. — Heb. 
ii. 14, 15. 


If I were to ask you to select a passage from the Old 
Testament, which should declare most unequivocally 
the supreme majesty of God, could you name a more 
distinctive one than the following from Isaiah ? Yet 
4 


74 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


illustrate this by other passages of Holy Writ, and see 
how all this glory appertains likewise to the only- 
begotten of the Father. 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father^ 
or to God absolutely. 

24. 

There is no God else beside Me, 

A just God and a Saviour. 

There is none beside Me. 

Look up to Me and be ye saved, 


All the ends of the earth. 

For I am God, and there is none 
else. 

I have sworn by myself, the word is 
gone out of my mouth in right- 
eousness, and shall not return. 


That unto me every knee shall bow, 
every tongue shall swear. 


Surely shall one say. In the Lord, 
have I righteousness. 

And strength. 

Even to him shall men come ; 

And all that are incensed against 
him shall be ashamed. 

In the Lord shall all the seed of Is- 
rael be justified, 

And shall glory. 

Isai. xlv. 21-26. 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 


24. 

The Word was God. — John i. 1. 

Jesus Christ the righteous; He is 
the propitiation for our sins. — 
1 John ii. 2. 

Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh 
away the sin of the world. — 
John i. 29. 

I shall give thee the uttermost parts 
of the earth. — Ps. ii. 8. 

Every one which seeth the Son and 
believeth on him may have 
everlasting life. — John vi. 40. 

* We shall all stand at the judg- 

ment seat of Christ; for it is 
written, as I live, saith the Lord, 
every knee shall bow to me, 
and every tongue shall confess 
to God. — Eom. xiv. 10, 11. 

* In the name of Jesus, every knee 

should bow of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and things 
under the earth. — Phil. ii. 10. 

The Branch — the Lord our right- 
eousness. — Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. 

Without me, ye can do nothing. — 
John XV. 5. 

I will draw all men unto me. — 
John xii. 32. 

The enemies of the cross of Christ, 
whose end is destruction. — 
Phil. iii. 18, 19. 

He was raised again for our justifi- 
cation. — Eom. iv. 25. 

God forbid that I should glory save 
in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. — Gal. vi. 14. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


75 


Scripture Testimony to GodtheFaiher, Scripture Testinwmy to arist. 

or to God absolutely. 


26. 

I, even I, am He that blotteth out 
thy transgressions for mine own 
sake. — Isai. xliii. 25. 


Forgiving iniquity. —Aic. xxxiv. T. 


26. 

Thou hast been .... a refuge from 
the storm, a shadow from the 
heat. — Isai. xxv. 4. 


27. 

He maketh the storm a calm, so 
that the waves thereof are still. 
— Ps. cvii. 29. 

28. 

I have satiated the weary soul. — 
Jer. xxxi. 25. 


29. 

I will pour out My Spirit upon all 
flesh. — Joel ii. 28. 

The Lord God and his Spirit. — 
Isai. xlviii. 16. 

The Spirit of your Father. — Mat, 
X. 20. 

30. 

This is the love of God, that we keep 
his commandments. — 1 John v. 

3. 

Thou shalt guide me with Thy coun- 
sel, and afterward receive me 
to glory. — Ps. Ixxiii. 24. 


25. 

The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin. — 1 
John i. 7. 

When He had by himself purged our 
sins. — Heb. i. 3. 

Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. — 
Mark ii. 6. 

26. 

A man shall be .... a covert from 
the tempest, .... as the 
shadow of a great Rock in a 
weary land. — Isai. xxxii. 2. 

27. 

He arose and rebuked the winds and 
sea, and there was a great calm. 
— Mat. viii. 26. 

28. 

Come unto me all ye that labor, . . 
and ye shall And rest to your 
souls. — Mat. xi. 28, 29. 

29. 

I will send the Comforter unto you. 
— John xvi. 7. 

Spirit of Christ. — Rom. viii. 9. 

The Spirit of his Son. — Gcd. iv. 6. 

He hath shed forth this. — Acts ii. 33. 


30. 

If ye love Me, keep my command- 
ments. — John xiv. 15. 

I will receive you unto myself. — 
John xiv. 3. 

The glory which Thou hast given 
me, I have given them. — John 
xvii. 22. 


76 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father^ 
or to God absolutely. 

31. 

If I be a Master, where is my fear? 
• saith the Lord of hosts. — Mai. 

i. 6. 

Him shalt thou serve. — Deut. x. 20. 


32. 

Thy Maker is thine Husband: the 
Lord of hosts is his name. — 
Isai. liv. 6. 


33. 

By the grace of God, I am what I 
am. — 1 Cor. xv. 10. 

The grace of God that bringeth sal- 
vation. — Tit. ii. 11. 


34. 

The love of God shed abroad in our 
hearts. — Rom. v. 6. 

Alive unto God {^uvrag ru Qeu). — 
Rom. vi. 11. 

Them that love God. — Rom. viii. 
28. 

36. 

Thy word have I hid in my heart. — 
Ps. cxix. 11. 

Thou shalt say. Thus saith the Lord 
God. — Fze. ii. 4. 

36. 

Give ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel, thou 
that leadest Joseph like a flock. 
— Ps. Ixxx. 1. 

I will feed my flock, I will cause 
them to lie down, saith the Lord 
God. — Eze. xxxiv. 16. 


Scripture Testimony U> Christ. 


31. 

One is your Master, even Christ. — 
Mai. xxiii. 8, 10. 

Ye serve the Lord Christ. — Col. iii. 
24. 

32. 

He that hath the bride, is the Bride- 
groom. — John iii. 29. 

The Bride, the Lamb’s wife. — Rev. 
xxi. 9. 

33. 

Be strong in the grace that is in 
Christ Jesus. — 2 Tim. ii. 1. 

By the grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, we shall be saved. — 
Acts XV. 11. (quoted above.) 

34. 

The love of Christ constraineth us 
that we 

Should live to him that died for us. 
{^uaiv rw aTto&avovn.) — 2 Cor. 
V. 14, 15. 

If any love not the Lord Jesus Christ. 
— 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 

35. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
richly. — Col. iii. 16. 

I say unto you. — Mat. v. 22, 28, &c. 


36. 

Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd 
of the sheep. — Heb. xiii. 20. 

The chief Shepherd shall appear. — 
1 Pet. V. 4. 

I am the good Shepherd . . . there 
shall be one flock (noipvri) one 
shepherd. — • John x. 14, 16. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


77 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father^ 
or to God absolutely. 

The flock of God. — 1 Pet. v. 2. 

I will seek that which was lost 
{rb dnoluiXog — LXX.) — Eze. 
xxxiv. 16. 

Jehovah is my Shepherd, 

I shall not want : 

He maketh me to lie down in green 
pastures : He leadeth me beside 
still waters. — Ps. xxiii. 1, 3. 

37. 

Whom Jehovah loveth, He correct- 
eth. — Prov. iii. 12. 

38. 

God will render to them . . . eternal 
life. — Earn. ii. 6, 7. 


39. 

Blessed is the man that trusteth in 
the Lord, and whose hope the 
Lord is. — Jer. xvii. 7. 

The name of the Lord is a strong 
tower. — Prov. xviii. 10. 

40. 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, 
my soul shall be joyful in my 
God: for He hath clothed me 
with the garments of salvation. 
— Jsai. Ixi. 10. 


41. 

That God may be all in all (rd 
ndvrakv ndaiv). — 1 Cor. xv. 28. 


Scripture Testimony to Christ. 


My lambs, my sheep. — John xxi. 15, 
16. 

The Son of man is come to seek and 
to save that which was lost 
(rd aTToAw/lof). — Luke xix. 10. 

The Shepherd ... of your souls. — 
1 Pet. ii. 25. 

My sheep shall never perish. — John 
X. 28. 

The Lamb . . . shall feed them, and 
shall lead them to living foun- 
tains of water. — Rev. vii. 17. 

37. 

As many as I love, I rebuke and 
chasten. — Rev. iii. 19. 

38. 

Be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life. — 
Rev. ii. 10. 

39. 

Blessed are all they that put their 
trust in him. — Ps. ii. 12. 

Christ in you, the hope of glory. — 
Col. i. 27. 

In his name shall the Gentiles trust. 
— Mat. xii. 21. 

40. 

Jesus Christ whom, having not seen 
ye love, in whom, though now ye 
see him not, yet, believing, ye 
rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory, receiving the 
end of your faith, even the sal- 
vation of your souls. — 1 Pet. 
i. 8, 9. 

41. 

Christ, all and in all (rd ndvra kuI 
kv ndacv ). — Col. iii. 11. 


78 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


Scripture Testimony to God the Father, Scripture Testimony to Christ, 
or to God absolutely. 


42. 42. 

God and our Father, to whom be Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: 
glory for ever and ever. Amen. to him be glory both now and 
— Gal. i. 4, 6. for ever. Amen. — 2 Pet. iii. 

18. 

Let US ponder these passages with prayer. Here 
Scripture asserts that the Father is eternal, and the 
Son eternal. Now, One who is from everlasting must 
needs he God. But there are not two Gods. There-':' 
fore the Son is one with God, and is God. 

In like manner Scripture asserts that the Son, 
equally with the Father, is the first and the last; is 
omnipresent, immutable, almighty ; is incomprehensi- 
ble, absolutely holy, indefectible; is the Creator, Pre- 
server, and Governor of all things in heaven and 
earth ; is the Searcher of all hearts, the final Judge, 
and the Awarder of everlasting life and death. Now, 
One possessing such properties and fulfilling such offi- 
ces, must needs be God. But there are not two Gods. 
Therefore the Son is one with God, and is God. 

So, likewise. Scripture asserts that unto the Son 
equally with the Father his people are to cleave, in 
him to abide, from him to draw their strength, and 
on him to repose their hope and trust ; that the Son, 
equally with the Father, is the alone Saviour and 
Redeemer of mankind; that looking up to the Son, 
equally with the Father, sinners are pardoned and 
souls are saved; that unto the supereminent Father, 
and equally unto the supereminent Son, every knee 
shall bow ; that the Son, equally with the Father, is 
the righteousness and strength and rock, the Shepherd 
and the Master of his people ; forgives sins, calms the 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


79 


conscience, gives his holy Spirit, legislates for his peo- 
ple on earth, and will receive them to his glory ; that 
the Son, equally with the Father, claims the supreme 
affiance of all, and is to those who believe in him the 
Author of unspeakable joy and everlasting salvation. 
Now, One who is the object of such ultimate confi- 
dence, homage, and delight, must needs be God. But 
there are not two Gods. Therefore the Son is one 
with God, and is God. 

, These Scriptures are amply sufficient to bear the 
weight of this most solemn conclusion, and I might 
with blessed expectation ask — “Dost thou now be- 
lieve in the Son of God? ” But abounding and inde- 
pendent evidence remains. 

(2) For the appearances of Jehovah to the Old 
Testament saints, taken in connection with the asser- 
tion to Moses, “ Thou canst not see my face ^^xiu. 
for there shall no man see me and live,” 
and with the parallel declaration of the New Testa- 
ment, “No man hath seen God at any time ; the only- 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the j 
Father, He hath declared him,” sufficiently 
prove that He, who thus manifested himself, was the 
Lord Jesus. 

Now Jacob says, “ I have seen God face 
to face, and my life is preserved,” and this 
after wrestling all night long in tangible conflict with 
One now called a man, now the angel, now hos. xu. 3, 4. 
God, now the Lord God of hosts. The ex. xxiv. 10. 
elders saw the God of Israel. Unto Moses, bx. xxxm. 
the Lord spake face to face, as a man speak- 
eth with his friend. Joshua conversed with the ador- 


80 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


Joshua V. 15 , able captain of Jehovah’s host. Manoah 
juA xiiL ^ feared, saying, “We shall surely die, be- 
cause we have seen God.” Isaiah cries, 
“ Woe is me, for I am undone, . . . for mine 
^ ^ have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” 

Of the message then recorded, we are expressly told 
— These things said Esaias, when he saw His 

John xii. 41. o i p i • 

(Christ s) glory, and spake ot him. 

These are only selected passages. There are many 
others (compare Genesis xviii. 1 , 2 , with 17 : Gen. 
xxxi. 11 , with 13 : Gen. xlviii, 15 , with 16 : Exod. 
iii. 2 , with 4 , 6 : Exod. xiii. 21 , with xiv. 19 : Judges 
vi. 12 with 14 , 22 with 23 ) in which the one who 
appears under the form of an angel or a man, is, in 
the immediate context, declared to be God, or Jeho- 
vah. Who, I ask, was this mysterious being? the 
Angel, or Sent One: He whom the Lord calls 
Ex. xxxiii. 14. ^presence : ” the visible similitude of Jehovah : 
Numbers xii. an Angel of whom the Lord says, “ Beware 
of Him, and obey his voice — provoke him 

Ex. XXiii.20, « XT Ml 1 ^ 

21. not, tor He will not pardon your trans- 

gressions, for my name is in him ? ” This glorious 
being was not God the Father, for no man hath seen 
him at any time. But He is declared to be Jehovah 
and God. Are we not compelled to acknowledge that 
He was the Divine Word, the Son, the brightness of 
His Father’s glory, the express image of his person? 
Therefore the Word is Jehovah God. 


(3) This is further established by the consideration 
that Scripture sanctions prayer to Christ, and com- 
mands the highest adoration and worship to be paid 
to him. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 81 

It was not God the Father, but God the Son with 
whom Abraham interceded for Sodom and „ 
G^omorran. It was God the Son with whom 
Jacob wrestled in prayer, for we are told — “he had 
power with God; yea, he had power with Hoseaxii.s 
the Angel and prevailed,” when he cried, “I 
will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” It was 
God the Son, whose benediction he besought for his 
grandchildren, when he prayed, “ The God which fed 
me, all my life long : the Angel which re- 
deemed me from all evil, bless the lads.” In 
all these instances, there is direct prayer to Christ. 

Again, it was God the Son, called the Angel of 
Jehovah, whom Moses worshipped at the hush. It 
was God the Son, who appeared as a man, 
before whom Joshua fell on his face and 
worshipped. It was God the Son whose glory Gid- 
eon feared, and to whom he built the altar J«<i. vi. 24. 
which records that living prayer, Jehovah- peace, 
shalom. It was God the Son, the angel of Jehovah, 
whose name was W onderful, who rose in 
the smoke of Manoah’s sacrifice. It was God 
the Son, for “ upon the likeness of the throne was 
the likeness of the appearance of a man ^ ^ 
above upon it,” before whom Ezekiel fell 
upon his face. In all these instances, we have direct 
worship paid to Christ. 

Further we read expressly in the Gospel, that the 
Lord Jesus was again and again worshipped, and we 
never find that He refused this adoration. I cannot 
consent for a moment to relinquish this word “ wor- 
ship” on the demand of some* Unitarian writers, that 

* Thus Dr. Channing writes in reply to this argument, “ It is wonder- 


82 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


it was only such reverent salutation as was by custom of- 
fered to those in authority. But at the same time this 
demand requires that we carefully and candidly inves- 
tigate the instances of its occurrence. No one denies 
that the word translated worship (TrpocKwio)) is often 
used in classical writers for humble and prostrate salu- 
tation. But the great question remains, what is its 
New Testament usage? I confess I was not prepared 
when I began my search for such preponderating proof 
of its almost universal application to Divine homage. 
The word occurs sixty times, and the noun formed 
from it (npoaKvvTiTTic;) once. The references are given 
below.* From which we arrive at this result, that 


ful that this fallacy so often exposed should be still repeated. Jesus 
indeed received worship or homage, but this was not as adoration to the 
infinite God: it was the homage which, according to the custom of the 
age, and of the Eastern world, was paid to men invested with great 
authority, whether in civil or religious concerns.” — Quoted by Dr. 
Gordon. 

* On the use of the word TzpoaKvveut in the New Testament: — 


Worship offered to God. 


Worship offered to Christ. 


Mat. iv. 10, ) Thou shalt worship the 
Luke iv. 8, j Lord thy God. 

John iv. 20-24, it occurs ten times 
including the noun— of the 
worship of the Father. 

1 Cor. xiv. 25, he will worship God. 


Rev. iv. 10, 
— V. 14, 


worship him that liv- 
eth for ever and 
ever. 


jg’ I worshipped God. 

— xiv. 7, worship him that made 
heaven. 

— XV. 4, worship before Thee, 0 
Lord. 

— xix. 4, worshipped God that 
sate on the throne. 


Mat. ii. 2, 8, 11, by the magi. 

— viii. 2, by the leper. 

— ix. 18, by the ruler. 

— xiv. 33, by the disciples after 
the storm. 

— XV. 25, by the woman of Tyre. 
— XX. 20, by Salome. 

by the women and 

— xxviii. 9, by the disciples, 

— xxviii. 17, after his resurrec- 

tion. 

Luke xxiv. 52, by the disciples as 
He ascended. 

John ix. 38, by the man born blind. 
Heb. i. 6, by all the angels. 

[These are two instances of a dis- 
tinct character:] 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


83 


there are twenty-two instances in which it is used of 
worship offered to God the Father, or absolutely to 
God ; and five of divine worship used intransitively ; 
fifteen instances of worship to Jesus Christ ; seven- 
teen of idolatrous worship condemned, and two of 
human salutation. Of these two, moreover, in one, 
(Mat. xviii. 26,) the king to whom the worship is 
paid is evidently in his royalty a type of God ; and im- 
mediately after, when the story represents a like trans- 
action between fellow-men, the word wor- _ 

7 . 7 . , 1 p 7 7 Mat.xvm. 29 . 

miffed is exchanged tor besought. W e are, 
therefore, virtually reduced to one solitary instance, 
and taking the New Testament for our guide, it would 
be as unnatural to deny, that divine worship is paid to 
Christ, as it would be just to accuse us of offering only 
human salutation to God, when we profess to worship 
him in his house, because we have lately addressed 
one of our civil magistrates as “the worshipful the 
mayor.’’ 

Rev. xix. 10, I r,. j Mark v. 6, by the possessed. 

— xxii. 9, 3 worship God. _ worship offered in mock- 

ery. 

Idolatrous worship repudiated. Worship used intransitively. 


Luke'i^'.T’ J worship of Satan. 
Acts vii. 43, worship of figures. 

— X. 25, human worship refused 
Rev. ix. 20, idolatry. 

— xiii. 4, (twice) 

— xiii. 8, 12, 15, worship of the 

— xiv. 9, 11, dragon, the 

— xvi. 2, beast or his 

— xix. 20, 


— XX. 4, 

— xix. 10, 1 saintly or angelic 

— xxii. 8, 3 worship refused. 


John xii. 20, Greeks came up to wor- 
ship. 

Acts viii. 27, of the eunuch. 

— xxiv. 11, of St. Paul. 

Heb. xi. 21, of Jacob. 

Rev. xi. 1, worshippers in the temple. 

[There remain two instances in 
which it is used of allowed sal- 
utation to man :] 

Mat. xviii. 26, by the unmerciful ser- 
vant. 

Rev. iii. 9, 1 will make them come 
and worship before thy feet. 


84 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


But the proportion of instances only presents a part 
of the evidence. When this same homage, described 
by the same word {TrpoaKwiu) was offered to a man or 
angel, where it could possibly he misunderstood, as 
by Cornelius to Peter, or by John to his prophetic 
guide, the action was immediately rebuked, and the 
worship straightway diverted from the creature to the 
Creator. 

Nor is this all ; it is not only, that Jesus was wor- 
shipped, but the affections and petitions, which accom- 
panied that worship, manifest, if not always distinct 
recognition of his true Godhead, at least, such humble 
dependence on his aid, as Divine aid, that if He were 
not God, he must needs have rectified so dangerous 
an approximation to idolatry. The leper not only 
worshipped him, but besought superhuman assistance: 

“ Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 

Mat. viii. 2. ’ ’ i i • 

clean. The ruler not only worshipped him, 
but implored his Divine interference — “My daughter 
is even now dead: but come and lay thy 

Mat. ix. 18. _ _ 1 1 1 n T „ -r 

hand upon her, and she shall live. * It 

was after He had manifested his Godlike power in 
quelling the storm, that the disciples worshipped him. 
Mat xiv 33 ^ truth, thou art the Son of 

God.” He demanded the implicit confi- 
dence of the man born blind, ere he received his wor- 
ship. Natural love found utterance in that 

John ix. 38. . ^ . 

piercing prayer, when the woman of Tyre 

Mat. XV. 25. worshipped him, saying, “ Lord, help me.” 


* The distinction betwixt such petitions, and the request to the apostles 
for assistance, (as Acts ix. 38,) is transparent, as Jesus in his own right, 
as the Messiah of God, wrought his mighty works ; and they, utterly re- 
pudiating self-dependence, (Acts iii. 12,) wrought all in the name and by 
the power of Jesus Christ. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


85 


His resurrection power challenged, and compelled the 
adoring worship of the Marys and the Apos- Mat. xxviii. 
ties : and the glory of the ascension war- ^ , 
ranted the homage they paid on Olivet. ^2. 

Nor are we confined to the word worship. What 
was it but trustful prayer, when the disciples in the 
storm fulfilled the Psalmist’s description of tempest-tost 
mariners, “ who cry unto the Lord in their 
trouble,” by betaking themselves to Jesus, 

“ Lord, save us, we perish.” What was it 
but prayer, when the two blind men implored a bless- 
ing no human power could bestow, crying, 

“Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.” 

The reader will easily multiply examples of these sup- 
plications from the Gospel history. 

Moreover, Jesus Christ inculcated prayer to himself. 
What petition could embrace a more glorious gifl, than 
that. He would persuade the woman of Samaria to 
offer : — “ Thou wouldst have asked of him, and He 
would have given thee hving water ; . . . 
springing up into everlasting life.” Again, 

He invites the weary and heavy laden to ^ ^s. 
come to him for rest. How are we to 
come but by prayer ? So he upbraids the John v. 40. 
Jews : “Ye will not come unto Me, that ye 
might have life.” How were they to come, but by con- 
fiding prayer ? Yes, confidence in a love, reliance on 
a power, dependence on a wisdom beyond that of our 
fellow-men and beyond our own — this is the soul of 
prayer, this is the essence of worship. But this trust 
He solicits for himself. “ Let not your heart be 
troubled : ye beheve in God, believe also in 
Me.” And so of praise. You admit the 


86 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


Divine homage to the Father, of the angelic song, 
“ Glory to God in the highest.” You must also admit 
the eucharistic tribute rendered, though by humble 
and human lips, when the multitudes cried, “ Hosannah 
to the son of David ! Blessed be he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord, Hosannah in the 
Mat. XXI. 9. ” Pqj, ’yyhen the chief priests and 

scribes were sore displeased, instead of rebuking this 
giving of thanks. He says, “ I tell you if these should 
hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry 
Luke xix. 40 Havc ye never read, out of the mouth 

of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected 

Mat. xxi. 16. praise.” 

Again, what was the dying act of the protomartyr 
Stephen, but the truest adoration of the Son of God. 
Realize, I pray you, that scene. Stephen full of the 
Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw 
the glory of God, and Jesus, standing on the right 
hand of God, and said, “ Behold I see the heavens 
opened, and the Son of man standing on the right 
hand of God.” Then they cried out . . . and stoned 
Stephen invoking,* and saying, “ Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit.” And he kneeled down and cried with a 
loud voice, “ Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” 
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. The Holy 
Ghost, who had inspired David’s devout affiance, 
“ Into thy hands I commit my spirit : thou 
ps.xxxi.5. redeemed me, O Lord God of truth,” 

and who had dictated Solomon’s declaration, 
Ecc. xii. 7. 44 the spirit shall return to God who gave it,” 

— now, in the plenitude of his grace, prompted the 
dying martyr to pray not to God the Father alone, nor 


* I need not remind the reader that the word God is not in the Greek. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


87 


to the Father through Christ, hut to pray to Christ, 
worshipping him with his latest breath as very and 
eternal God. 

Again, St. Paul addresses prayer to God the Father, 
and to the Lord Jesus Christ, without respect to order 
of names : — 


Now God himself and our Father, Now our Lord Jesus Christ him- 
and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct self, and God, even our Father, com- 
our way unto you. — 1 TAess. iii. fort your hearts.— 2 Thess. ii. 16, 

11- ir. 


Here is express and direct supplication, so that we 
need not marvel this was one distinctive name of 
Christian believers — “all that in every 
place call upon (emKaXovfievoig) the name of ^ 

Jesus , Christ our Lord.” 

The testimony from {emKaT^ofiai) here, and generally 
translated, “call upon,” is most convincing, when com- 
pared with the Septuagint usage of the word ; for it 
is the ordinary term for the sacred invocation of God ; 
as, to take one example out of multitudes, “ The 
Lord is nigh unto all them that call him, 
to all that call upon him in truth.” It jg 
employed in the New Testament for prayer to God 
the Father, “If ye call upon the Father, 

&c.” It describes such spiritual worship ^ 
that, whether offered to the Father, or to the Son, 
salvation is indissolubly connected with it, — “ Who- 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord, 
shall be saved.” And yet it is, without 
shadow of a doubt, applied to the invocation of the 
Lord Jesus — “all that call on thy name,” 

“ them which called on this name,” and, for 


88 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


the context compels us to interpret the following words 
of Christ, “ the same Lord over all, is rich 

Rom. X. 12. upon him.” 

Before we pass on, let us ponder that declaration of 
St. Paul, with regard to his crucified Lord — “ God 
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which 
is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth, and that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Phil. u. 9-11. ^ glory of God the Father.” 

Regard this fact as you. will, refine it as you may, 
spiritualize it to the utmost, if Jesus were man only, it 
would prefigure the universal exaltation of a creature. 
The mighty suasion of a creature’s name, would bring 
every intelligent being to his knees, from the highest 
archangel to the feeblest saint : the name of a crea- 
ture would swell the tide of celestial adoration, and 
tremble on the lips of the contrite penitent : and the 
supremacy of a creature would overshadow heaven, 
and earth, and hell. Could this tend to the glory of 
God the Father? Nay, verily. That name, which is 
above every name, is Christ’s, with emphatic propriety, 
“ God, our Saviour.” 

The latest revelation of Scripture confirms this 
truth, beyond contradiction. Is it Divine worship of 
the Father, when St. Peter, having prayed the God of 
all grace to perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle his 
people, closes his solemn prayer, with the equally 
solemn doxology, “To Him, be glory and 
® ■ dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.” You 

admit it, you call it “ adoration to the infinite God.” 
Only be consistent. John, in Patmos, cries, “ Unto 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


89 


him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
God and his Father, to him be glory and 
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” xhe 
words both in Greek and English, are identical ; the 
adoration is the same ; and the Beings wor- 
shipped — the God of all grace, and the thT Eoiogy 
bleeding Saviour — are one indivisible Je- 
hovah. 

And when the veil is drawn aside in the celestial 
temple, what is, I pray you, the nature of their wor- 
ship ? O Spirit of the living God, engrave this trans- 
parent evidence on every doubting heart ! “ The four 

living creatures and the four-and-twenty el- 
ders fell down before the Lamb, having 
every one of them, harps and golden vials, frill of 
odors, which are the prayers of saints, and they sung a 
new song, saying, ‘ Thou art worthy to take the book 
and to open the seals, for thou wast slain, and hast 
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kin- 
dred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast 
made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall 
reign on the earth.’ 

“ And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many 
angels round about the throne, and the living crea- 
tures, and the elders, and the number of them was ten 
thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thou- 
sands, saying, with a loud voice, ‘ Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing.’ 

“ And every creature which is in heaven, and on 
the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the 


90 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, ‘ Blessing, 
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that 
sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, for ever 
and ever.’ 

“ And the four Hving creatures said, ‘ Amen.’ And 
the four-and-twenty elders fell down, and worshipped 
him, that Hveth for ever and ever.” 

This testimony is guarded on every side. You have 
first, the redeemed adoring the Lamb only, with pros- 
trate adoration. Then numbers without number of 
the angels, adore the Lamb likewise. Then the whole 
universe, in similar adoration bless both the eternal 
Father and the Lamb. And, lastly, there is the 
expressive echo of praise to the eternal Father alone. 
You cannot say it is not the highest worship, for once 
it is offered to the Eternal alone.* You cannot say it 
is offered to the Father alone, for once the Lamb is 
united with the Father. You cannot say it is offered 
to the Father only through the Son, for twice it is 
offered alone to the Lamb that was slain. It is the 
utmost homage heaven can pay. The spirits of the 
just made perfect have no higher tribute to give. 
The angels of hght can offer no more exhaustive 
ascription of their devotion. No vision that you could 
have conceived, no language that you could have 
employed, could more distinctly authorize our render- 
ing to Christ the highest and the deepest adoration, 
seraphic love, confiding trust, everlasting praise. 

* Or if, as is the most probable reading, you omit, with Tregelles, in 
V. 14, the words, “ Him that liveth for ever and ever,” the worship is 
addressed absolutely to the Deity. It will scarcely be believed, that 
those who have refused to admit adoration in {irpoaKvveo)) when applied 
to Jesus Christ, have objected that here the self-same word is applied 
only to the Father. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


91 


I have dwelt the longer on this portion of my argu- 
ment, for this is, of itself, sufficient to set the question 
at rest for ever, when we remember that Jesus Christ 
himself, gathering up the testimony of Scripture, says, 
“ It is written, thou shalt worship (^ ttpookwecj ') 
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve.” But we have seen that the highest worship 
and service on earth, and in heaven, is rendered to the 
Son. Therefore, He is the Lord our God. 

(4) Once more this truth is proved, by the conjunc- 
tion of the name of the Lord Jesus with that of our 
heavenly Father, in offices where the association of the 
Creator with his creature, would confound the infinite 
distinction betwixt God and man. 

This evidence, though somewhat of a circumstantial 
and incidental character, is, from the exceeding solem- 
nity of its use in the New Testament, peculiarly con- 
clusive. The combination of the name of the Most 
High with one subordinately employed in the AsEx.xiv. 3 i. 
evident capacity of his servant, is of easy ex- 
planation : though even this is rare in Scripture ; but 
the conjunction of the infinite God, with one co- 
ordinately engaged in manifest equality of rank, is 
utterly inexplicable on the Unitarian hypothesis. Ex- 
amples will most readily illustrate my meaning : — 

“ Go ye, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and xxvm. 
of the Holy Ghost.” Is it, for a moment, 
conceivable, that He who sees the end from the be- 
ginning, and knew that this would be the standard 
formula of Christian baptism, would suffer that in this 
most solemn rite, the name of a creature with a de- 


92 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


rived being, should coalesce into his own name, which 
alone is Jehovah, the increate Father ? 

“ He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, 
and I will love him: and will manifest myself unto 
him. ... If a man love me he will keep my words, and 
John xiv. 21, Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him.” 
The love of the Father and of the Son is represented 
as an equal privilege, — the access of the Father and 
of his Son to the soul of the obedient believer is a 
common access, — and the indwelling of the Father 
and of the Son a combined habitation. What created 
being could use such language ? It warrants the 
parallel declaration of St. John’s Epistle, “Truly our 
fellowship is with the Father and with his 
Son Jesus Christ,” but it obliges us, at the 
same time to confess, that Jesus, in saying God was 
His Father, made himself equal with God. 

“ This is life eternal to know Thee the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
sent.” Compare with this — “ Grace and peace be 
multiplied unto you, through the knowledge 

9 1 9 t/ ' o o 

of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” If Jesus 
Christ were only an angelic or human prophet, reveal- 
ing the Father, is it credible that the intimate heart- 
knowledge of the expositor should be put on the same 
level with the knowledge of God, as equally essential 
to the life of the soul, and equally indispensable for the 
sustenance of that life ? 

Again, I take up the Epistles. The prefaces are 
most suggestive, whether you regard the embassy of 
the writers, or the designation of the church addressed, 
or the benediction implored. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


93 


As to the commission by virtue of which they acted, 
you find almost every combination employed: — 

“ Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of 
Jesus Christ.” 

“James, a servant of God, and of the Lord 
Jesus Christ.” James i.l. 

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” iPet. i. i. 

“ Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of 
Jesus Christ.” 2Pet.i. i. 

“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ.” Judei. 

“Paul, an apostle, ... by Jesus Christ, 
and God the Father, who raised him from ® ' 

the dead.” 

Would not this interchangeable variety, if Christ 
were man only, confuse every reverential distinction 
betwixt the Creator and the creature ? Though here 
the difference betwixt the loftiest monarch and his low- 
liest subject sinks into nothing, can you imagine an 
earthly plenipotentiary sent forth, now styling himself 
“a servant of the emperor and an ambassador of the 
chancellor;” now “a servant of the emperor and of the 
chancellor;” now “an ambassador of the chancellor;” 
now “ a servant and an ambassador of the chancellor ; ” 
now “the servant of the chancellor;” now “an ambas- 
sador (sent) by the chancellor and by the emperor?” 
Who would not think that the imperial supremacy was 
greatly compromised by such language ? And yet, 
there the distinction to he observed is only between two 
men of equal nature, though unequal rank. But no 
distinction is drawn in this celestial commission : — Is 
not then the original authority equal? 

The designation of the churches addressed, is also 
perfectly unrestricted : — 


94 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


1 Cor. i. 2. 

Jesus.” 


“ Unto the church of God which is at Cor- 
inth, to them that are sanctified in Christ 


“ To the saints which are at Ephesus, and 
Eph. i. 1 . faithful in Christ Jesus.” 

“To all the saints in Christ Jesus, which 

Phil. i. 1. TDl,’!* * 

are at Ehmppi. 

“Unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is 

1 Thess. i. 1 . in God the Father, and in the Lord J esus 

2 Theas. i. 1. Christ.” Also, “ The church ... in God 
om Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

It is to these two last descriptions of the Thessalonian 
church, I would especially direct your attention. Was 
then their spiritual status equally, indiscriminately con- 
sistent in the Father and the Son ? Then to that 
church the Father and the Son were equally the Rock 
of their salvation. 

And to complete the evidence, the benediction be- 
sought by the great apostle of the Gentiles is almost 
invariably in these words : — * 

“ Grace he imto you, and peace from God our 
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Why this mutual derivation of spiritual blessing 
from the Father and the Son ? Surely, because equal- 
ly in the Father and in the Son have we eternal life. 

I might also adduce the prayers (quoted p. 87,) 
1 Thess. iii. where, without regard to precedence of names, 
blessings are implored from God the Father, 


* I may mention, in passing, there is a remarkable addition in the 
apostolic Epistles to Timothy and Titus. All the others that bear the 
name of Paul, begin with ‘ Grace and peace ; ’ these have a most gracious 
enlargement, ‘ Grace, mercy, and peace.’ He who knew so well a min- 
ister’s heart, interlined, as it were, his usual salutation-prayer, with m&rcy. 
How precious a word to ministers ! And never more precious, than when 
treating of the awful mysteries of the faith. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


95 


2 Cor. xiii. 14. 


and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as co- 2 Thess.ii.i 6 , 
equal in their power to grant the petition 
urged. 

But I hasten to that wondrous benediction which 
has dropped, as the gentle dew from heaven, upon the 
church of Christ for eighteen centuries — “ The grace 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and 
the communion of the Holy Ghost, he with 
you all. Amen.” 

Consider, I pray you, in the baptismal and in this 
benedictory formula, the meaning for which those who 
insist on the mere humanity of Jesus Christ contend. 
The first, as expounded by them, would run thus : — 

Baptizing them into the name of the Father^ and 
of an exalted man^ and of a certain influence of the 
Father. 

The second would be thus interpreted : — 

The grace of a creature., and the love of the Creator., 
and the communion of creative energy., he with you all. 
Amen. 

Your reason and conscience ahke, refuse to believe 
that this inextricable confusion betwixt God and man, 
between a person and an abstraction, is sanctioned by 
Scripture. And then in 2 Cor. xiii. 14, why this nota- 
ble change of the order observed in Mat. xxviii. 19, if 
not to show that “in this Trinity, none is afore or 
after other, none is greater or less than an-creedofs. 
other ? ” These two verses, pondered and 
prayed over, seem to me sufficient to decide the con- 
troversy for ever. 

But if further testimony is needed, we have that of 
every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under 
the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are 


96 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


in them, who cry without intermission and without 
pause, and therefore without the possibility of any dis- 
tinction (as between the dulia and latria of the Roman- 
ists) being drawn in their adoration — “ Blessing, and 
honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth 
on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever 

Rev. T. 13. , ,, 

and ever. 

And, finally, of the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, 
we read, “ I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God 
Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it. And 
the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, 
Rer. xxi. 22 , ^o shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten 
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” 

Why (I press the question on your conscience) this 
coequal and cooperating glory of the Lamb with the 
omnipotent God ? Could you substitute any created 
man or angel for His excellent Name ? Never. For 
He alone, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, is One with 
God, and is God. The Lord, of his infinite mercy, 
grant that I who write, and they who read these pages, 
may stand with that palm-bearing multitude of the re- 
deemed, who have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of Jesus, and who cry aloud ever- 
more, “ Salvation to our God who sitteth on 


Rey. yii. 10. 


the throne, and unto the Lamb.” 


(5) It remains that we consider the explicit asser- 
tions that Jesus Christ is Jehovah and God. 

These assertions are neither few, nor obscure. But 
I would venture again to remind my readers, that the 
momentous inquiry in which we are engaged is no 
mere intellectual problem, to be grasped by the power 
of human reason, and to be solved by the skill of hu- 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


97 


man analysis : for “ that no man can say that 

V •/ 1 Yll 

Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 

And I would ask them to lift up their hearts with 
me, that the Spirit of truth may guide us into all 
truth, that He may glorify Jesus, and that He may 
take of the things of Christ, and show them John xvi. 13, 
unto us. 

“ The title Jehovah is the grand, the peculiar, and 
the incommunicable name of God. It neither is ap- 
plied to any created being throughout the Scriptures, 
nor can he applied in reason, for it imports the neces- 
sary, independent, and eternal existence of the Most 
High. Of the infinite, self-existent essence implied by 
this name, it is impossible for us to form a full and ade- 
quate idea ; — because we and all other creatures have 
but a finite derivative essence. Our sublimest notions 
of such uncircumscribed existence must fall infinitely 
more short of the truth, than the smallest animalcule 
or atom floating in the air of the vast dimensions of 
universal nature. We could not even have conceived 
anything of the peculiarities, which this name teaches 
us of the Almighty ; if He had not been pleased to 
reveal himself under it, and to declare those distin- 
guishing peculiarities to tfs. Jehovah, Ehjah, and Jah, 
are names expressive of the incommunicable essence ; 
not names of office. The word Jah, stands simply for 
the Divine essence, or for Him who is, and who neces- 
sarily must be. The name Ehjah, occurs nowhere but 
in Ex. iii. 14, and means not only Him who necessarily 
is, but who necessarily will he. It regards the future 
Eternal, and demonstrates the immutability of the Di- 
vine existence. The title Jehovah, includes the past, 
the present, and the future Eternal ; that is, according 


98 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


to our conceptions, for all things and every division of 
that duration which we understand by time, are pres- 
ent with him though successive to us. Thus the in- 
spired apostle, finding no word in Greek to represent 
the idea of the Hebrew, uses a periphrasis or comment 
on the word, and expresses the name Jehovah by ‘ He 
that is, that was, and that is to come.’ The word 
Jehovah (which contains the other two) imports in 
itself an independent essence ; and it denotes to us and 
Serie’s Horae whole Creation, both the source of life 

soiitanae. continual maintenance of it.” 

Now we find certain prophetic declarations in the 
Old Testament regarding Jehovah fulfilled, as ruled by 
the New Testament, in Christ Jesus. This is, perhaps, 
the most conclusive evidence that could he adduced — 
an inspired interpretation of an inspired text — so that, 
if I may adopt the apostle’s words, “ by two immuta- 
ble things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we 
might have a strong consolation, who have fled for 
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before 

Heb. Vi. 18. ^ ^ 

US. 

The voice of him that crieth in This is He that was spoken of 
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way by Esaias the prophet, saying. The 
of Jehovah! make straight in the yoice of one crying in the wilder- 
desert a highway for our God. — ness. Prepare ye the way of the 
Isai. xl. 3. Lord. — Mat. iii. 3. 

Now John Baptist’s voice, without controversy, was 
heard in the wilderness, preparing the way for Christ. 
Therefore, Christ is Jehovah, our God.* 

Sanctify Jehovah of hosts him- Unto you, therefore, which be- 
self, and let him be your fear, and lieve. He ( Christ) is precious ; . . 
let him be your dread, and He shall but a stone of stumbling, and a 

* So it results from a comparison of Luke i. 76, and Mat. xi. 10, that 
Jesus Christ is the Lord and the Highest. Cf. Jones, p. 4. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


99 


be for a sanctuary; but for a stone rock of offence, even to them which 
of stumbling, and for a rock of of- stumble at the word, being disobe- 
fence to both the houses of Israel. — dient. — 1 Pel. ii. 7, 8. 

I&ai. viii. 13, 14. 

The stone of stumbling, as Isaiah affirms, is “ Jehovah 
of hosts himself,” but as St. Peter interprets it, (for he 
is referring to what is contained in the Scripture, v. 6,) 
this stone is Christ. Therefore, Christ is Jehovah of 
hosts himself. 

And I (Jehovah, which stretcheth And again, another Scripture 
forth the heavens, &c. see ver. 1) will saith, “ they shall look on him 
pour upon the house of David, and (Christ) whom they pierced.” — 
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, John xix. 37. 
the Spirit of grace and supplication, 
and they shall look upon me whom 
they have pierced. — Ztch. xii. 10. 

The prophet declares the One who is pierced is Jeho- 
vah speaking of himself, but according to St. John’s 
inspired interpretation, Christ crucified is here pre- 
dicted. Therefore, Christ is “ Jehovah, which stretch- 
eth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the 
earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” 

Mine eyes have seen the King, These things said Esaias, when 
Jehovah of hosts. — hax. vi. 5. he saw his glory, and spake of him. 

— John xii. 41. 


The message recorded determines the occasion to be 
the same. Therefore, Jesus Christ, of whom the in- 


spired apostle is speaking, 
whom the seraphim veiled 
ration. 

I (Jehovah) have sworn by my- 
self that unto me every 

knee shall bow, every tongue shall 
swear. — hai. xlv. 23. 


is Jehovah of hosts, before 
their faces in lowliest ado- 

We shall all stand at the judg- 
ment seat of Christ : for it is writ- 
ten, As 1 live, saith the Lord, every 
knee shall bow to me, and every 
tongue shall confess to (iod. — Rom. 
xiv. 11. 


100 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


St. Paul incontrovertibly establishes his assertion, that 
we shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ, by this 
solemn oath of Jehovah, recorded by Isaiah. There- 
fore, Christ is Jehovah, who says, (ver. 21,) “ There is 
no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour : 
there is none beside me.” 

When we remember the solemn protest of Him who 
calls himself the Jealous God — “ I am Jehovah ; that 

is my Name : and my glory will I not give 

Issii xlii 8 ^ ^ ^ 

to another,” — and when we reflect on the 
awful judgments denounced on those who render to the 
creature the supreme worship due to the Creator, the 
above comparison of Scripture with Scripture, wherein 
the Holy Ghost interprets, explains, and applies his 
own language, presents the most irrefragable proof that 
Jesus Christ is the Eternal, Increate, Alone, Jehovah 
of hosts, the Highest, the Lord our God. 

And here may be the most convenient place to intro- 
duce a few remarks on the witness we derive from the 
word “ Lord.” No doubt it is often used by classical, 
and sometimes by the sacred writers, as a human ap- 
pellation. But then the facts remain, that it is the 
word, equivalent to Adonai, which the Jews, through 
their reluctance to pronounce the awful name J ehovah, 
continually employed as its synonyme ; that it is the 
word by which Jehovah is uniformly translated by the 
Septuagint, even in Exodus vi. 3 ; and further, that 
standing by itself in the New Testament, it designates 
in multiplied passages the Infinite Father. We must 
look, therefore, broadly to its general use by Christ 
and his apostles. And what is the result ? The word 
(Kvpwf) occurs 737 times in the New Testament — of 
these, in 18 instances it is confessedly applied to man 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


101 


or men. In 54 instances it appears in the discourses 
and parables of Christ, where the master described as 
Lord represents or typifies the Father or Himself; and 
in 665 cases, the vast remainder, it is applied indis- 
criminately to the Eternal Father or to the Son. Lists 
of the first two classes are given below.* Now of these 
eighteen instances with scarcely an exception, was 
there the remotest possibility of Divine worship being 
intended to the party thus designated? Indeed, in 
twelve of these cases, the word is in the plural. But 
what of those very numerous instances in which it is 
applied to Jesus Christ ? Therein He is described as 


* Instances in which the word Kvpiog 
occurs in the discourses and par- 
ables of the Gospels, where the 
Lord, master, or householder rep- 
resents or typifies God the Father, 
or God the Son : — 

Mat. vi. 24: x. 24, 26: xiii. 2T: 
xviii. 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34 : xx. 8 : 
xxi. 30, 40: xxiv. 45, 46, 48, 50: 
XXV. 18-26, ten times. 

Mark xii. 9 : xiii. 35. 

Luke X. 2: xii. 36-47, seven times: 
xiii. 8 : xiv. 21, 22, 23 : xvi. 3, 5, 6, 
8: xix. 16, 18, 20,25: xx. 13, 15. 

John xiii. 16 : xv. 15, 20. 

I was in some doubt whether to add 
to this list — 

Mat. XXV. 11: Luke xiii. 25: 

but in these addresses the para- 
ble seems almost lost in the 
reality. 


Instances in which the word Kvpcog 


is used of man: — 

Mat. xxvii. 63, by the Jews to Pilate. 
Luke xix. 33, of the owners of the 
colt. 

John xii. 21, by the Greeks to Philip. 
Acts xvi. 16, 19, masters of the dam- 
sel. 


— xvi. 30, by the jailer to Paul 
and Silas. 

— XXV. 26, by Festus, of Augustus. 
1 Cor. viii. 5, lords many. 

Gal. iv. 1, of the heir. 

t’ , 1 of masters. 

Col. 111. 22 : IV. 1, ) 

1 Tim. vi. 15, [Lord] of lords. 

1 Pet. iii. 6, by Sara, of Abraham. 

Rev. vii. 14, by John to the elder. 

— xvii. 14: xix. 16, [Lord] of 


lords. 


Now it is trifling with this question to assert that the passages adduced 
in the second column^ invalidate all the proof to be derived from the hun- 
dreds of passages in which Jesus Christ is called Lord, and as Lord is 
believed in, served, and worshipped. The servant of a nobleman who ad- 
dresses him as “ my lord,” does not confound his duty to his master and his 
God. 


102 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Acts X. 36 . “ Lord of all : ” as the Lord, even Jesus, He 

ix. 17. appeared to Saul in vision : as the Lord, St. 
2 Cor. ni. 8, 9. Paul hesought him to remove his thorn in 
1 Cor. XV. 47. the flesh : He is declared to be the second 
man, the Lord from heaven : and as the Lord, the 
righteous judge. He will give a crown of 
righteousness to all them that love His ap- 
pearing. Now to one thus described as Lord, seeing 
that the name is applied to the Father and the Son 
indiscriminately, so that, in many places, the difficulty 
is very great of knowing whether the Eternal Father 
or the Lord Jesus Christ he intended, the risk of 
ascribing Divine worship would be imminent indeed. 
The collation of two passages from the Old, with two 
passages from the New Testament, seems to clinch the 
argument : — 

Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God There is one Lord [elg Kvpiog ). — 
is one Lord (Kvptoc 6 Ephe. iv. 5. 

KvpuoQ elc hau — LXX.)—Deut. 

vi. 4. 

And the Lord shall be king over To us . . . there is . . . one Lord 
all the earth. In that day, there (ek Kvpiog) Jesus Christ, by whom 
shall be one Lord, and his name One are all things, and we by him. — 1 
(Kvpiog elg Kcd rd ovopa avTov iv — Cor. viii. 6. 

LXX.) — Zech. XXV. 9. 

Here the apostle uses the very words to which the 
Jews clung with such tenacity, as establishing the 
fundamental truth of the Unity of God ; and adapting 
the very words of the common version, the Septuagint, 
applies them to J esus Christ. There appears, therefore, 
in this name of Christ, as used in the New Testament., 
explicit declaration that He is the Eternal Jehovah. 

As a link of connection between the testimony of the 
Old and New Testament to the person of the Messiah, 


THE ROOK OF AGES. 


103 


I would now entreat the reader’s calm and prayerful 
consideration of the first two chapters of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews. St. Paul is proving the preeminence 
of Christ over all other prophets, and the essential dif- 
ference betwixt his and the angelic natm*e. If exor- 
bitant views of his Divine dignity had crept into the 
church, here, at least, we should look for the correc- 
tion of error, and for definition of the truth. And 
how then is He described ? 

“ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake in time past unto the fathers by the or “ in many 
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto ^no^^epC)c, 
us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir 
of all things, by whom also He made the 
worlds. 

“ Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the 
express image of his person, (vTroaTaaeuc') and upholding 
all tilings by the word of his power, when he had by 
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand 
of the Majesty on high ; being made so much better 
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a 
more excellent name than they. 

“ For unto which of the angels said He at any time, 
‘ Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ? ’ 
And again, ‘ I will be to him a Father, and he shall be 
to me a Son.’ And again, when He bringeth in the 
first-begotten into the world. He saith, ‘ And let all the 
angels of God worship him.’ 

“ And of the angels. He saith, ‘ Who maketh his an- 
gels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.’ 

“ But unto the Son ITe saith, ‘ Thy throne, O God, 
is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the 
sceptre • of thy kingdom : Thou hast loved righteous- 


104 


THE EOCK OF AGES. 


ness and hated iniquity ; therefore God, even thy God, 
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
fellows.’ And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast 
laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are 
the works of thy hands ; They shall perish, hut Thou 
remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a gar- 
ment ; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and 
they shall he changed ; but Thou art the 

Heb. i. 1-12. ^ ^ ^ 1 n p -i * 

same, and thy years shall not tail. 

I would only here again remind you, we have a Di- 
vine interpretation of the Divine Scriptures. What- 
ever be your preconceived view of these verses, the 
apostle, writing as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, 
adduces them as proof texts of the glory of Christ. In 
the following chapter, we find this wonderful Saviour 
H b " 9 10 ^ little lower than the angels, for the 

suffering of death, perfected through suffer- 
ing, taking part of flesh and blood, in all 
Heb. ii. 14, 17, things made hke unto his brethren, having 
suffered, being tempted : hut in these verses 
I have quoted, how transcendent Ms Majesty ! The 
goodly fellowship of the prophets were his forerunners. 
The innumerable company of angels are his worship- 
pers. He is seated on the everlasting throne. He is* 
the only-begotten Son of the Father. He is addressed 
as God. He is adored as the immutable, immortal Je- 
hovah. I feel any attempt to enforce this evidence 
may mar its impressive grandeur, and I can only pray 
that the word of God may here he quick and powerful, 
and sharper than any two-edged sword, in the hand of 
the Almighty Spirit of God. 


^ The most severe criticism has not really brought one sustained objec- 
tion against the received version. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


105 


I might well close this part of my argument here. 
Scripture declares that our God, whose name alone is 
Jehovah, is One Jehovah, and is jealous of his own at- 
tributes and of our confidence. In a word, we rest on 
God. At the same time. Scripture declares that all 
these Divine attributes belong to Jesus Christ, who 
claims equal adoration and equal trust, as being him- 
self J ehovah, our God and Saviour. Our faith centres 
on Jesus Christ. Christ is all, and in all, to the Chris- 
tian. In a word, we rest on Christ. Here is our Rock, 
inexpugnahile saxum. You cannot add to its security, 
for it is impregnable. You cannot increase its stabil- 
ity, for it is immovable. You cannot make absolute 
certainty, more certain. Nevertheless, many express 
assertions remain. And if I may return to my former 
illustration from trigonometry, in the solution of a 
triangle if a side be measured and two angles be ob- 
served, nothing can add to the perfect certainty with 
which a mathematician tells you the number of de- 
grees in the third angle, and the length of the remain- 
ing sides. Nothing would increase his assurance. His 
conclusion is demonstrably true. Still, if an indepen- 
dent observer could tell you the measurement of those 
parts which were the object of algebraic investigation, 
the fact of their precise coincidence, which of course 
and of necessity appears, is a further proof with what 
security you may always rest on the results of mathe- 
matical science. I would then, draw into a brief com- 
pass, some few of these positive deductions. They state 
expressly what other Scriptures prove demonstratively. 

Let us then humbly weigh that passage, against 
which, skeptical criticism has directed its fiercest at- 
tacks, but from which they have all recoiled, and which 


106 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


stands impregnable as ever, a rock foundation for the 
faith of the humble believer. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the W ord was God : the same was in 
the beginning with God: all things were made by him, 
and without him was not anything made that was 
made. In him was life, and the hfe was the 
’ light of men. . . . He was in the world and 
verse 10. the woild was made by him, and the world 
knew him not . . . And the Word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory (the glory 
as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full 
of grace and tmth. ... No man hath seen 
God at any time : the only-begotten Son which is in 
the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
Mm."* 

If anything of man could add strength to this Di- 
vine testimony to Jesus, it would be the fact of Philo, 
a Jew of Alexandria, contemporary with Christ, but 
manifestly ignorant of his history, describing the Di- 
vine Word, as the Son of God, the First Begotten, 
the Image of God, the Angel, a second God, the in- 

* I earnestly commend to the reader to weigh Dr. Pye Smith’s lucid ex- 
position of this passage, and pray that the question he puts into the lips 
of the sincere Unitarian, may be applied with Divine power. —“Am I 
not inwardly sensible that in my attempts to frame an interpretation of 
this paragraph, which may wear at all the semblance of consistency, I 
am rowing against the stream ; I am putting language to the torture ; I 
am affixing significations to words and phrases, which all my efforts can 
scarcely keep me from exclaiming that they could never have been in 
the contemplation of the original writer? Have I not then awakening 
reasons for the suspicion that I have not framed my opinions with that 
close and faithful investigation, which the solemn greatness of the case 
requires? Am I not bound to review the whole subject in the sight of 
the all-seeing God, and under the sense of my accountableness to him as 
the author and revealer of truth? ” 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


107 


stmment of Deity in the creation, the High Priest and ^ 
Mediator, perfectly sinless himself, and the fountain of 
virtue to men : and of St. John adopting this self-same 
name, as one indicative of the Messiah, and unTierstood 
by those who should read his Gospel. But Scripture 
is its own best interpreter. And this same apostle, 
writing in after years of the advent of Christ, says, 

“ He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, 
and his name is called the Word of God.” 

Christ then, IS th.e ord, C^hrist is th.e (Creator, (3h.rist 
is God. This introduction to his Gospel was, I doubt 
not, constructed by the inspired apostle to be a bul- 
wark against every doubt, and accordingly, for near 
two thousand years, 

“ as a tower of strength, 

Which stood four-square to every wind that blew,” 

it has kept the hearts of innumerable believers in per- 
fect peace. 

There is another passage I cannot pass over, though 
space forbids me to enter into it fully, John v. 17-29; 
when, the Jews having accused our Lord of making 
himself equal with God, because He said God was his 
Father, instead of protesting against their construction 
of his words, which, if only a man. He would have 
done with indignation and abhorrence. He proceeded, 
while acknowledging the subordination of his mission 
as man, to set forth the original and essential supremacy 
of his person as God. For if the Son doeth all 
things what things soever the Father doeth : 
if the Son quickeneth whom He wilH if the verse 21 . 
dead shall hear his voice and live : if he executes 
judgment on the universe : if all men must verse 27 . 
honor the Son, even as they honor the verse 23 . 


108 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Father : then is He equally Almighty : equally the com- 
municative fountain of life : equally God who alone can 
raise the dead : equally the Omniscient who alone can 
judge ^ assembled world : and equally the centre of 
universal homage and adoration. 

I proceed to the utterance of Thomas, when the 
permitted touch *of his risen Saviour scattered the 
John IX 28 clouds of unbelief — “ My Lord and my 

God ! ” I know that it has been alleged that 
this was an exclamation of surprise, addressed to God 
the Father : but I can hardly believe any earnest seeker 
after truth can thus be baffled. No one who knows the 
language of the heart, can here misinterpret it. The 
apostle had given up all for Jesus Christ : his master 
had been seized, and crucified, and buried : and 
Thomas’s faith was sorely tried. But now his Lord 
stood before him — he could doubt no more ; and “ he 
answered and said,” (not without reason is the word 
“ answered ” here inserted — the words were addressed 
as an answer to One who stood his proven Saviour be- 
fore him : — it was the deep response of the heart of 
Thomas to Christ) “ he answered and said, ‘ My Lord 
and my God ! ’ ” 

I append other passages with a few brief remarks of 
the most learned and impartial critics : — 

“ Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, 
who is over all, God blessed for ever.” — Rom. ix. 5. 

“ Every Greek scholar must admit, that the fair and 
just construction of the sentence is that which is gen- 
erally received.” — P. Smith, vol. ii. p. 683. 

Col. ii. 9, — “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily.” 

“ The Grodhead^ i. e. Deity, the essential being of 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


109 


God — bodily^ i. e. manifested corporeally in his present 
glorified body. Before his incarnation, it dwelt in him 
as the Aoyof uaapKoc, but not aufiauKug, as now that He is 
the Aoyo? IvaapKOQ.'^^ — Alford. 

Eph. V. 5, — “ The kingdom of [him who is] Christ 
and God tt] ^aaildg. rov XpioTov Kal 0£oi)).” 

“ Not only the principle of the ruleund the invariable 
practice of the New Testament with respect to Qe6g, 
and all other attributives, compel us to acquiesce in the 
identity of XptoTov Kal Geov, but the same truth is evinced 
by the examination of the Greek fathers” .... Mid- 
dleton, quoted by P. Smith, who says, “ If this text 
had no relation to any controversy, and were judged 
of solely by the common law of Greek construction, 
no person would ever have disputed the propriety, or 
rather necessity, of considering the two concluding 
nouns as referring to one and the same* object.” 

Titus ii. 13, — “ the glorious appearing of our great 
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” 

Cf. Scholefield’s note in his “ Hints.” Middleton 
says, “ If here the sacred writer did not mean to iden- 
tify the ‘ great God and the Saviour,’ he expressed 
himself in a manner which [could not but] mislead his 
readers.” — Quoted by P. Smith. 

2 Pet. i. 1, — “ the righteousness of our God and 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, (iv diKaioavv-Q rov Qeov rifiuv koI auTjjpog 
^Iriaov xpcarov :) ” for construction compare the expression 
a little below, — (v. 11,) “ the everlasting kingdom 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ {t^v aluviov ^acildav 

rov Xvpiav rjfiuv kuI aur^pog *lrjaov Xpiarov).” * 


* If the Unitarians insist that both the Father and the Son are intended 
in these three passages, granting for a moment this were possible, then as 
an argumentum ad seipsos, all the force of the previous section (4) applies. 


no 


THE ROCK OP A.GES. 


And lastly, 1 John v. 20, — “We are in him that 
is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This (person) is the 
true God, and eternal life.” 

“ The circumstance which, in my mind, places the 
matter beyond dispute is, that the same person is 
here most evidently spoken of as ‘ the true God and 
ETERNAL LIFE.’ It will he granted that a writer is 
the best interpreter of his own phraseology. Observe, 
then, the expression which he uses in the beginning of 
the Epistle. ‘ The life was manifested, and we have 
seen it, and shew unto you that eternal 
ijohni. 2 . which was with the Father and was 

manifested unto us.’ In these words it is admitted 
that the eternal life is a title given to Jesus Christ. 
Compare, then, the two passages. Is not the conclu- 
sion of the Epistle a clear explanation of its begin- 
ning?” — Wardlaw’s Discourses, p. 59. 

I would only ask you to compare with this, the con- 
fession of the prophet, “ Jehovah is the true 
jer. X. 10. jJq jg Hviug God.” And here we 

have another invincible argument that Jesus Christ is 
Jehovah, very and eternal God. 

This treatise does not profess to enter deeply into a 
critical examination of the text of the New Testament, 
but it may be a satisfaction to those whose minds have 
been disturbed by rash assertions of the uncertainty of 
manuscripts and versions, to know, that not one of the 
texts here rehed on, is set aside by that learned and 
eminent man. Dr. Griesbach.* To him Unitarians 

and we find the conjunction of the names God and Christ, where such 
association would confound the distinction betwixt the Creator and his 
creature. 

* On the doctrine before us, Griesbach says : “ So numerous and clear 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Ill 


constantly appeal. Of him Dr. P. Smith writes : “No 
man ever devoted, through a long life, such a persever- 
ing assiduity of labor to the critical study of the New 
Testament, and no man has ever so completely united 
the confidence of all denominations of Christians in the 
sagacity, judgment, and integrity of his critical decis- 
ions.” There are indeed three texts often contended 
for, which the authority of this distinguished professor 
precludes my bringing forward as evidence : 1 John v. 
7, he believes to be an interpolation ; in Acts xx. 28, 
he prefers Kvplov to 0eov; and in 1 Timothy iii. 16, he 
would substitute 6? for ©eof. But to these three texts, 
that we may not be drawn into needless disputations, I 
have simply forborne to refer. The argument does not 
demand them. It is incontrovertible without them. 
And therefore the inquirer may he certified on the one 
hand, that if he rejected the positive assertions that 
Christ is God, the great God our Saviour, in whom 
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, he 
- would be violating those rules of sound common sense 
which he must apply, to interpret every other classical 
work ; and on the other hand, he may he assured, that 
in resting on these declarations he is, so far as the most 
calm and learned scholars can assure him, relying on 
the very exact meaning of the words intended by those 
who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 

are the arguments and the testimonies of Scripture in favor of the true 
Deity of Christ, that I can hardly imagine how, upon the admission of 
the Divine authority of Scripture, and with regard to fair rules of inter- 
pretation, this doctrine can by any man be called in doubt. Especially 
the passage, John i. 1-3, is so clear, and so superior to all exception, that 
by no daring efforts of either commentators or critics, can it ever be over- 
turned or be snatched out of the hands of the defenders of the truth.” — 
Quoted by P. Smith, vol. ii. p. 540. 


112 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


And here, I would pause : and pray the reader to 
review the impressive strength of that evidence which 
the word of God has afforded. 

Let us remember how earnestly Scripture detaches 
our ultimate confidence from any creature, and exclu- 
sively claims it for the one Infinite Creator : how vivid 
is the contrast drawn betwixt man and God : how 
direct are the prohibitions against trusting in man, how 
express the precepts to rest on God : and moreover 
how awful is the holy jealousy of the Most Highy if 
any one usurp the incommunicable glories of his name, 
or intrude upon the claims of his supremacy : so that 
the first great lesson of spiritual education may be 
summed up in the words — “ Blessed is the man that 
jer xvii 7 ti'Hsteth in the Lord, and whose hope the 
Lord is.” 

Further let us remember, how confessedly Scripture 
requires us to repose our ultimate confidence in the 
Lord Jesus Christ : setting him before us as pos- 
sessed of all those incommimicable attributes of God- 
head ; as our Creator, Preserver, and final Judge ; as 
the hope of fallen man to whom the eye of every 
believer was directed by prophecy before his first ad- 
vent ; and as the great object of religious trust, a trust 
claimed by himself when He came into the world, 
conceded by his followers, and commanded by his 
inspired apostles : so that the second great lesson of 
spiritual education may be summed up in the words — 
“ Whosoever believeth in the Son of man 
John ui. 15. perish, but have eternal life.” 

Further let us remember, that comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual, not only does Scripture ascribe to 
Clirist all the attributes of essential Deity and thus, 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


113 


seeing there is one God and none else, establish the 
unity and equality of the Son with the Father ; but 
moreover, represents the Son as fulfilling towards us all 
those offices of infinite greatness and goodness which 
God only can sustain : that the appearances of God 
Jehovah to the Old Testament saints, combined with 
the declaration “No man hath seen God at any time,” 
are utterly inexplicable on any other hypothesis, and 
are absolutely decisive when the New Testament as- 
sures us, it was the glory of the Lord J esus they saw : 
that the direct and Divine worship rendered to and 
received by Christ, in earth and heaven, compels us 
to acknowledge He is the Lord our God : that the 
name of Jesus Christ is united with that of our 
heavenly Father in offices where the coalition of the 
Creator with his creature would blend and confuse 
the infinite distinction betwixt God and man : that, 
whereas the most sensitive jealousy appears through- 
out Scripture, of any created being usurping the name 
.of the supreme Creator, inspired interpretations of in- 
spired texts assure us that Jesus Christ is the Eternal, 
Jehovah of hosts, the Lord our God : that as Lord, 
the one Lord, He requires obedience and is obeyed, 
claims trust and is trusted, demands adoration and is 
adored : and that finally. He is addressed as God and 
Lord ; that He, the Word, is declared to be God, to 
be with God in the beginning, to be the Creator of 
all ; that He claims equal honor ; that He is over all 
God blessed for ever ; that his righteousness is the 
righteousness, and his future advent the appearance 
of our great God and Saviour J esus Christ ; and that 
of him St. John declares, “ this is the true God and 
eternal life.” 


114 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


Let US ponder these things, and reflect how cumu- 
lative is this evidence. I earnestly pray that the Di- 
vine Spirit may present it with irresistible power to 
every conscience. If, after weighing the solemn dec- 
larations of Jehovah, guarding his own inalienable 
glories, we had found the essential attributes of Deity 
assigned in Scripture to Jesus Christ, this would have 
been an unanswerable argument. If, after consider- 
ing our miserable condition as lost sinners, we had 
found that in the matter of eternal salvation, our 
hopes are there directed to Jesus as our Saviour, this 
would have been conclusive evidence, when we re- 
member “ I am God, and beside me there is no Sav- 
iour.” If, leaving this line of proof, we review the 
appearances of the Lord to the Old Testament saints, 
this would have been a new and interesting series of 
demonstrations which would lead us to the same result. 
If again, quitting this, we carefully ponder the Divine 
worship offered to him, and accepted by him, this is 
decisive, when we remember, “ Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, . and him only shalt thou serve.” If, 
pursuing another path of investigation, we study those 
Scriptures where, in offices of the highest solemnity 
the name of Jesus Clirist is so united with that of our 
heavenly Father, that to accept this as the conjunction 
of the Creator with his creature would confound all 
distinction betwixt God and man, we are again led 
irresistibly to the conclusion, that the Godhead of the 
Father and of the Son is one, the glory equal, and 
the majesty coeternal. If, once more, we see how 
prophecies regarding God Jehovah are claimed by 
the New Testament as being fulfilled in Jesus Ciirist, 
here is inspired testimony to the supreme Godhead of 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


115 


the Messiah. And finally, when we find the awful 
names of God, and Saviour, and Redeemer, and Lord, 
ascribed to Him again and again in a subject where 
misdirected faith were idolatry and death, this again 
is explicit assertion and transparent proof. I say, 
the evidence is cumulative. It is not a long elabo- 
rate catena, the strength of which is the strength of 
its weakest link. If the reader thinks any text is in- 
applicable, let him dismiss it. This proof rests on 
hundreds of texts. The whole drift of Scripture, 
from Genesis to Revelation, establisjies it. It is in- 
terwoven with the very texture of the sacred writings. 
The lines of argument are distinct and independent, 
and yet, when presented in their collective strength, 
they are so mutually corroborative, that it seems as if 
we heard the voice again from heaven saying, “This 
is my beloved Son, hear ye him: ” and when we hum- 
bly ask, “ who is the Lord, that I might believe in 
him?” and bend a reverential ear to catch the im- 
port of the answer, it is this, “Unto you is born a 
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord, Emmanuel, Won- 
derful Counsellor, the mighty God, the Father of 
eternity, the Prince of peace.” 

But cordially to embrace this, needs I know the 
convincing power of the Holy Ghost. I feel my help- 
lessness. I give myself to prayer. The altar is built 
as once on Carmel, the trench is made, the wood is 
piled, the sacrifice disposed in order. But it needs 
the fire from heaven. “ Hear me, O Lord, hear me, 
glorify thy Son that thy Son also may glorify thee. 
Reveal thy Son to those who seek thee. oai. i. i6. 
Draw them unto him. Thou commandedst 44. 
the light to shine out of darkness : shine in their 


116 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


2 Cor iv 6 heart, to give the light of the 

knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
of Jesus Christ.” 

Bear with me, my friends, for giving utterance to 
prayers which have been long pleaded at the throne 
of grace. They have not been offered in vain. And 
when the fire of the Lord falls on any heart, it shall 
consume the sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, 
and the dust: and the deep response of that believ- 
ing soul shall be, “My Redeemer, thou art the Lord 
— my Saviour, tjiou art God.” 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


117 


CHAPTER V. 

I PROCEED, therefore, to my fourth proposition : — 

That Scripture^ in the Old and in the New Testament 
dlike^ presents to us the incarnation and the mission 
of the Saviour^ as the extremity of condescension in 
Jehovah^ that thereby He might exalt us to everlasting 
life. 


(1) The Scriptures already cited prove beyond 
contradiction the coequal, coessential, coetemal God- 
head of the Son. And here we have attained that 
vantage ground from which, I am persuaded, we may 
most safely with, the adoring angels stoop down and 
look into the humiliation and the humanity 
of Jesus Christ. iPet. 1. 12. 

Let us only follow the pathway along which Scrip- 
ture does as it were lead us by the hand. Let us ac- 
knowledge the infinite perfections of him who is the 
Alone Supreme Jehovah. Let us confess the infinite 
demerit of rebellion against him. Let us admit that 
He has opened out to us in his word a way of ac- 
cess whereby we, the sinful and the sunken, may 
be brought nigh to him, the absolutely Holy and 
Good One, who is “of purer eyes than to 
behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.” 

Let us remember that this reconcilement is spoken 


118 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


of as a salvation, which to accomplish Omnipotence 
travels in the greatness of its strength, and 
isai. iiiu. 1. Omniscience declares to have been a 

Eph iii 9 iiiystery hidden in God from the beginning 
of the world: and that to fulfil this work 
we find a wondrous mission revealed, in which the 
Lord God and his Spirit send forth, and 

Isai. xlviii. 16. t 

the Eternal I AM is the sent One. Let 
us then on the sure testimony of Scripture acknowl- 
edge that all the attributes, the honors, and the 
rights of Jehovah are ascribed to this Sent One, 
whose name is called J esus, for He shall save his 
people from their sins ; who claims himself equality 
with God as his only-begotten Son ; and who is asso- 
ciated with God in ^ery supreme office of Deity. 
And lastly, let us accept the simple fact, as recorded 
in the Bible, of Christ’s descent from above ; that He, 
johni. 1, 14. the Word, who in the beginning was with 
iu. 13. God and was God, was made flesh and dwelt 
among us ; that He came down from heaven ; 
that He proceeded forth and came from God, 
xvii. 5 . forsaking the glory which He had with the 
Father before the world was ; that being originally 
(vTrdpxuv) in the form of God, He emptied himself, and 
took upon him the form of a servant, and 
was made in the likeness of men: that by 
him the universal Creator — by him incarnate and 
crucified — it pleased the Godhead to rec- 
oncile all things unto himself : that He 
being the brightness of his Father’s glory and the ex- 
press image of his person, in the bringing many sons 
of God to glory, forasmuch as the children were par- 
takers of flesh and blood, also himself likewise partook 


viii. 42. 


Phil. u. 6, 7. 


Col. i. 19, 20. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


119 


of the same, that through death He might destroy 
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, 
and deliver them who through fear of death j 3 
were all their life subject to bondage. 

Now our whole souls are filled with one thought — 
the condescension of God. Now we shall not be 
stumbled at passages which speak of the exceeding 
humiliation to which He stooped. As we assign no 
hmit to the height of his glory, we shall assign none 
to the depths of his grace. Yea, so far from taking 
offence at the inferiority of the position which He as- 
sumed, the very lowliness of his incarnation and the 
very degradation of the death He died, will kindle in 
us a brighter and a more burning gratitude, when we 
remember that though rich it was for our 
sakes He became poor, and that for us, his 
wayward and wandering sheep, the chief Shepherd 
offered up himself as the Lamb of God, laying down 
his life of his own accord, and taking it again to die 
no more. 

(2) Perhaps to some minds it might have seemed 
more congruous with the Divine Majesty, supposing it 
needful for our salvation that God should humble him- 
self at all, that the descent should have been less steep, 
and the humiliation less lowly. They would have 
chosen not some little insignificant planet like earth 
as the scene of his self-abnegation, but some central 
orb of metropolitan grandeur, and would have gathered 
the whole intelligent creation as spectators around the 
splendid arena. They would fain have had him as- 
sume not the body of our abasement but haply an 
angelic nature, wherein, as some seraph of surpassing 


120 


THE KOCK OP AGES. 


brightness, He should have wrought deeds of miracu- 
lous beneficence. And chiefiy, they would have shun- 
ned for him the ignominy of the cross, and have 
selected what they deemed some more glorious method 
of self-sacrifice, whereby He should have paid the 
price of our redemption. This they would have called 
a salvation worthy God. But surely, as the heavens 
are higher than the earth, so are the ways of Jehovah 
higher than our wavs and his thoughts than 

Isai. It. 9. ® ~ 

our thoughts. His work is perfect. Let us 
remember that whatever of material and physical glory 
we add to the mission of Christ, beyond what is need- 
ful for the evidence of that mission, we subtract from 
its moral and spiritual glory. Between the unap- 
proachable splendors of the Godhead and the lowest 
forms of created intelligence there are gradations ab- 
solutely without number. For the increate Jehovah 
to have assumed the nature of the highest archangel 
would have been an infinite descent. Let us thus 
far confide with childlike confidence, that herein was 
manifested omniscient love when God chose the world 
— this little world of ours — to be the theatre of the 
mighty conflict, and sent his only-begotten Son in 
the ‘likeness of sinful flesh to suffer death 
ijSiniv.l', upon the cross, and to be the propitiation 
for our sins. 

“ The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” 
There is a majestic condescension in these few words 
that nothing can equal. He was made man. “ By 
himself, by his friends and disciples, by his enemies 
and persecutors, Jesus Christ was spoken of, as a 
proper human being. His childhood was adorned 
with filial affection, and the discharge of filial duty. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


121 


His intellectual powers, like those of other ^ _ 

children, were progressive. In his ear- 
liest years. He embraced with eagerness the means 
of improvement. He had large experience of human 
suifering. His lot was one of severe labor, poverty, 
weariness, hunger, and thirst. He affected no austerity 
of manners, nor did he enjoin it upon his followers. 
While He mingled in the common sociability and the 
innocent festivities of life. He sustained a weight of 
inward anguish which no mortal could know. He 
was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He 
looked forward to the accumulation of suffering which 
He knew would attend his last hours, with feelings on 
the rack of agony, with a heart exceedingly sorrowful 
even unto death, but with a meek and resigned resolu- 
tion, a tender and trembling constancy, unspeakably 
superior in moral grandeur to the stern bravery of the 
proudest hero. In his last hours, with a bitterness of 
soul more excruciating than any bodily sufferings. 
He cried, ‘ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ! ’ while yet. He promised heaven to a penitent fel- 
low-sufferer, and died in an act of devotional confi- 
dence, triumphing that his work was finished. Thus 
He died, but rose again, that He might be the Lord 
of both the dead and living ; and He ascended to his 
Father and our Father, to his God and our God. 
This was the man Christ Jesus : a man demonstrated 
from God by miracles, and prodigies, and 
signs, which God did by him : a man or- “• 
dained by God, to be the judge of the living 31, 

and the dead. 

“ It is delightful to dwell on the character of this 
unrivalled man : not only because in no other, since 


122 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


the foundation of the world, has the intellectual and 
moral perfection of our nature been exhibited, hut be- 
cause the contemplation of such excellence refreshes 
and elevates the mind, and encourages to the bene- 
ficial efibrt of imitation. He always did the things 
which pleased his heavenly Father. Love, zeal, 
purity, a perfect acquiescence in the Divine will on 
every occasion, and the most exalted habits of devo- 
tion had their full place and exercise in his mind. 
The most refined generosity but without affectation or 
display ; mildness, lowliness, tenderness, fidelity, can- 
dor, a delicate respect for the feelings as well as the 
rights and interests of others, prudence, discriminating 
sagacity, the soundest wisdom, and the noblest forti- 
tude shone from this Son of righteousness with a lustre 
that never was impared.”* 

Believe me, we yield to none in the strength of 
conviction with which we hold to the humanity of 
... . Jesus Christ. “ The Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us.” We take our stand 
fearlessly on this. This unlocks all those texts on 
which Unitarians are wont to insist, asserting the 
inferiority and subordination of the Son of Man to 
the Father. We do not hide these truths. We do 
not gloss them over. We do not explain them away. 
They are essential to our faith. As combined with 
the revelations of his essential Godhead, they form that 

* I make no apology for condensing and abstracting the two preceding 
paragraphs from the profound treatise of Dr. Pye Smith, to which I have 
frequently referred, on “ Scripture Testimony to the Messiah ” (vol. ii. 
334-337). Permit me to take this opportunity of urging any who need a 
calm and candid investigation of this momentous subject, to study his 
noble apology for our faith. Most thankful should I be, if my humble 
essay formed the stepping-stone which should lead any to that truly great 
work. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


123 


inimitable grace which is our salvation. The foot of 
the ladder must rest on earth, as the top of it oen. xxviii. 
reaches to heaven. jokn i. ci. 

If our doctrine is the truth, that there subsist in 
the essence of One Jehovah, three who are called 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, coequal 
and coeternal ; and that it is the design of the Father, 
and the will of the Son, with the consenting pleasure 
of the Holy Spirit, that the Son, for the recovery of 
fallen man, should empty himself, not of his Godhead, 
which were impossible, but of his glory, and take our 
human nature into mysterious union with his Divine 
nature, so that God and man make one Christ : if this 
is spoken of in Scripture as the extremity of Divine 
condescension, and humiliation, devised and accom- 
phshed, that hereby guilty men might have a medium 
of access to the Holy Deity, — or rather foregoing ab- 
stract terms, that we might have a mediator betwixt 
us and God, one with God by reason of his eternal 
essence, one with us by reason of the humanity He 
deigned to assume: how otherwise could such a re- 
lationship have been expressed than in such or such 
like words — “ There is one God and one mediator 
betwixt God and man ; the man Christ ^ » g g 

Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all ?” 

— or such a salvation be described than “ This is life 
eternal, that they should know thee, the only ^ 

true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
sent?” Looking forward, as the man Christ Jesus, 
to his translation from this world of suffering to the 
glory of his Father’s throne, (remember He had 
emptied himself, taken upon him the form of a ser- 
vant, humbled himself — if these words mean any- 


124 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


thing, they imply a spontaneous descent from the 
higher to the lower,) how otherwise could He de- 
scribe his return from that present estate of afflicted 
humanity, than in such or such like words — “ If ye 
loved me ye would rejoice, because I said, 

Johnxiv.28. ^ • 

I go unto the r ather, tor my Jb ather is 
greater than I.” Having descended with the express 
design of doing his Father’s pleasure, of serving a per- 
fect service, of rendering a spotless obedience to the 
law, of exhibiting a Divine model of self-denial ; how 
otherwise could He declare his mission than in these or 
^ similar terms — “I came down from heaven 
not to do mine own will, but the will of him 
that sent me ? ” Standing forth, the author and fin- 
Heb. XU. 2. isher of the faith maTeu^) ; the exemplar of 
that faith we are to copy; as man working 
his miracles not by virtue of his Divinity ever inherent 
in him, but by virtue of a perfect faith in the power of 
the Father; that faith which with us is intermittent 
and often overborne, being with him constant without 
defect, and victorious without defeat ; how otherwise 
could He reveal the secret and entire dependence of 
his soul on God, than in language such as this, — 
John V. 30 , “ I can of mine own self do nothing.” “ My 

andxiv.io. Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the 
works ? ” 

(3) These passages affirm his proper humanity, and 
his humble mission as a servant. This humanity we 
assert as strongly, this mission we believe as verily 
as yourselves. All that faith requires is to act upon 
the great principle of comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual ; and, wherever we find any assertion of his 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


125- 


subordination as man, if we can place by its side a 
parallel assertion of his supremacy as God, faith de- 
mands nothing more. Often, the immediate context 
will supply the corrective, and adjust the balance. If 
not, we shall never consult in vain the whole counsel 
of the hvely oracles of God. 

Thus in the Old Testament, as man the heel of 
the seed of the woman is bruised ; as God He achieves 
a victory surpassing human strength. He ^ ... 

bruises the serpent’s head. Against him as 
man, we read in the second Psalm, the kings of the 
earth set themselves : to him as the Anointed .. g 7 12 
Son of God, Divine royalty is ascribed and 
universal trust attracted. As man He appears at the 
close of the 110th Psalm, like a weary traveller, drink- 
ing of the wayside brook and revived therewith : but the 
opening verses described him as the victorious ^ ^ ^ 

Lord of all on the throne with Jehovah. If 
you regard his humanity. Unto us a child is ^ 
born : if you regard his Deity, His name is 
the Mighty God. As David’s son. He is the rod out 
of the stem of Jesse : as David’s Lord, He shall smite 
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and 

Isai. xi. 1, 4. 

with the breath of his life shall he slay the 
wicked. In respect of his manhood He grows up as a 
tender plant, despised and rejected : in virtue j». g g 
of his Godhead he bears the iniquity of us all, 
and with his stripes we are healed. As man He is the 
pierced smitten shepherd ; as God He is jg, 

Jehovah’s fellow. andxui. /. 

And when we come to the New Testament, the evi- 
dence is yet more abundant. Space forbids to do more 
than place side by side, with a very few remarks, those 


126 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Scriptures which reveal the characteristics of his man- 
hood and his Godhead. Those on the left hand will 
record his functionary subordination as man ; those on 
the right his essential supremacy as God : — 

I came down from heaven not to Father, I will (iJeAw). — JbAwxvii. 

do mine own will, but the will of 24. 

him that sent me. — John vi. 38. Lord if thou wilt . . “ I will.” — 

Mat. viii. 3. 

His will, therefore, as man, was subjected to that of 
his Father : as God, was ever in perfect harmony with 
his Father’s will, but was self-existent, free, efficacious. 

Of that day and hour knoweth no The Father sheweth the Son all 
man, no, not the angels which are things that himself doeth. — John 
in heaven, neither the Son, but the v. 20. 

Father. — Marh^iii. 32. As the Father knoweth me even 

so know I the Father. — John x. 15. 

Lord, Thou knowest all things, — 
John xxi. 17. 

Luke ii. 62 . Just as we read, Jesus increased in wisdom, 
and therefore there were subjects unknown 
to him at twelve years of age, which were acquired by 
him or revealed to him afterwards : so in Mark xiii. 32, 
Jesus is speaking in his human nature. This point 
was not made known to him as man, by the Spirit. 
And since his manhood is spoken of as a condition of 
his prophetical office (Deut. xviii. 15, of thy hrethreri) 
He is declaring as an ambassador, what lay within his 
commission, and this day and hour he was not em- 
powered, as Prophet, to reveal.* The contrast verses 

* “ Admiranda est in motibus animse Christi varietas. Interdum habuit 
sensum excelsum, ut vix videretur meminisse, se esse Hominem in terris 
ambulantem: interdum habuit sensum hurailem, ut paene videri posset 
oblitus, se esse Dominum ex coelo. Et pro praesenti semper affectu 
solitus est eloqui; modo tanquam Is, qui cum Patre erat unum; modo 
rursum sic, quasi ea duntaxat conditione esset, qua sunt omnes homines 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


127 


sufficiently prove He shared the infinite counsels of his 
Father, comprehended the Incomprehensible, and is 
himself Omniscient. 

I go unto the Father, for my Making himself equal with God. 
Father is greater than 1. — John — JbAnv. 18. With our Lord’s con- 
28. sequent discourse, v. 19 to 29. (See 

p. lor.) 

Inferiority of rank as man, as mediator, as the 
apostle and servant of his Father, — having for us 
spontaneously stooped from the throne of his glory, — 
is asserted in the first quotation : equality of nature as 
to cooperation, self-existence, infinite knowledge, uni- 
versal trust, is proved in the second. 

The very texts which most strongly declare the hu- 
manity of Jesus, are sufficient, as Coleridge somewhere 
observes, to refute those who from them would deny 
his Deity. How could a mere man without absurd 
presumption, solemnly announce that God the Father 
was greater than He ? How could He be made flesh ? 
How it be a proof of his humility that He was made 
in the likeness of man. 

This may be the fittest opportunity to say a few 
words on the answer of Christ to the ruler, “ Why 
callest thou me good ? There is none good but one, 
that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, ^Lc. i«, 
keep the commandments.” This young man, 
coming to Christ and exclaiming, “ Good teacher, what 


sancti. Saepe haec duo mirS varietate inter se temperantur. Hoc loco 
humillim^ loquitur, sensumque suae gloriae, quern sermo de judicio 
atferebat, temperat. Dices: Cur appellatur h. 1. Filim, non sumta de- 
nominatione a natura humana? Resp. In enunciatis de Salvatore, cum 
praedicato glorioso copulari solet subjectum demissum; Mat. xvi. 28; 
John i. 61, iii. 13: cum praedicato demisso, subjectum gloriosum; Mat. 
xxi. 3 ; 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; et h. 1. est antitheton ad Patrem. — Bengel. 


128 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


good thing {diddaKa?ie dyaiJe, tl aya^ov) shall I do tliat I may 
have eternal life ? ” manifestly only recognized him as 
a human teacher, as such, called him good; nay put 
his own good works on the same level of merit. The 
Lord refused such homage. It was founded on false 
assumptions. Its acceptance would have strength- 
ened a yet unhumbled self-righteousness. “ Why,” 
he asked, “ why callest thou me good ? ” The stress is 
on the “ why.” The answer to that “ why,” would 
discover an unsuspected depth of self-ignorance. But 
the Lord proceeded to probe the young man’s heart, 
and tried him by the second table of the law wherein 
he rested. The ruler was found wanting. We know 
not his after-history ; but thus, at least, one barrier 
was broken down which, unremoved, must have ever 
kept him from confessing his need of an atonement for 
sin, from imploring the advocacy of Jesus Christ the 
righteous, and from trusting in the perfect goodness of 
him before whom, unconsciously; then He knelt, Jeho- 
vah our righteousness. But to resume. 

To sit on my right hand, and on To him that overcometh will I 
my left, is not mine to give, except grant to sit with me in my throne, 
to those for whom it is prepared of — Bev. iii. 21. 
my Father. — Mat. xx. 23. 


The translation given above of our Lord’s reply to 
Salome simply omits the words which are not in the 
original.* The promise to the church of Laodicea 
sufficiently proves that in respect of heavenly dignities, 
Jesus Christ does as He wills with his own. 


* Cf. Scholefield’s “ Hints,” and Alford; and for construction dVi* ole 
TfTOLfiaaTai compare precisely similar idiom in the previous chapter, verse 
11, dXK' ole dedorai, where it is properly translated “ save.” 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


129 


God so loved the world that He Christ also loved the Church, and 
gave his only-begotteu Son. — John gave himself for her. — Eph. v. 25. 
iii. 16. 


It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; 
He hath put him to grief: when 
Thou shalt make his soul an offering 
for sin. — Isai. liii. 10. 

Whom God hath raised up, hav- 
ing loosed the pains of death. — 
Acts ii. 24. 


I lay down my life that I might 
take it again. No one (ovdeig) taketh 
it from me. I have power* to lay 
it down, and I have power to take it 
again. — John x. 17, 18. 

Destroy this temple (his body), 
and in three days I will raise it up. 
— John ii. 19. 


He (the Father of glory) set him He ascended up on high. He led 
at his own right hand in the heav- captivity captive. — Eph. iv. 8. 
enly places, far above all principal- Having spoiled principalities and 
ity and power. — Eph. i. 20, 21. powers. He made them a shew of 

openly. — Col. ii. 15. 

/ 

In these passages you will observe that, on the one 
hand, the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus 
as man, being subordinate to the Father and at his dis- 
posal, are said to have taken place at his Father’s ordi- 
nation : while on the other hand, as God, Christ gives 
himself, raises himself, ascends in his own might, and 
as the King of glory, the Lord of hosts mighty in 
battle, enters the everlasting doors. 


And now. Lord . . grant . . that Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee 
signs and wonders may be done by whole. — Acts ix. 34. 
the name of thy holy child Jesus. 

— Acts iv. 29, 30. 

If the first exalts the Father ; the second, as distinctly, 
exalts the Son as the immediate Author of miraculous 
healing. 

Forgiving one another, even as Forgiving one another, even as 
God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven Christ forgave you. — Col. iii. 13. 
you. — Eph. iv. 32. 

* Unitarians object to h^ovaia being here translated “ power,” (they 
would prefer “authority,”) but it is so rendered of the Father’s power, 
Luke xii. 5 ; Acts i. 7 ; and as they would add Jude 25. The previous 
clause declares the spontaneity of the gift. 

6 * 


130 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Now the Father, now the Son, is referred to as the first 
cause of forgiveness. 

To ns (there is but) one God And one Lord Jesus Christ, by 
the Father, of whom ov) are all whom [6l' ov) are all things, and 
things, and we unto (etf) Him. — we by him. — ib. 

1 Cor. viii. 6. 

On this. Dr. P. Smith says, “ Lord is not put as a 
designation secondary and inferior to God. It attrib- 
utes dominion ; and the extent of the dominion must 
be according to the nature of the case in any given in- 
stance. Is there anything, then, in this case to direct 
our conception ? Yes : all things are ‘ by Him,’ or 
. ‘ through Him,’ as their immediate and efficient Cause. 
The identical phrase is used, which is twice by the 
same writer employed with regard to the Eternal 
Father (Rom. xi. 36 ; Heb. ii. 10) : by whom (dt’ ov ra 
Tcavra) are all things.” Myself believing the reference 
to be to Deut. vi. 4, as stated p. 102, no proof could be 
stronger than this of the Divine supremacy of the Mes- 
siah. But at all events, the Deity of Christ can no 
more be denied because the Father is here called the 
“ One God,” than the dominion of the Father can be 
denied because the Son is called the “ One Lord.” * 

* There are two other passages to which Unitarians sometimes refer, 
but the deduction they draw from them is, in each case, refuted by the 
context. 

(1) “ The first-born of all creation” Trpwroro/cof 'Kdarjg Knaeug, or “ of 
the whole creation.” — Col. i. 15. 

But the apostle continues — 
verse 16. “ For by him were all things created.” 

If you regard the word Jirst-born in its general acceptation 
among Eastern nations, it imports lordship, excellence,' dignity; and as 
such the clause might well have been translated here, “ The chief of all 
creation.” But if you press for a more exact significance, it absolutely 
resists the interpretation that Christ is himself a creation of God, for then it 
would have been nouTOKnoTog, first created, as Chrysostom observes (see 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


131 


Ye are Christ’s : and Christ is 
God’s. — 1 Coi\ iii. 23. 

The head of Christ is God. — 
1 Cor. xi. 3. 

Then cometh the end, when He 
shall have delivered up the king- 
dom to God, even the Father, . . 


Then shall the Son also himself 
be subject unto him that put all 
things under him, that God may 
be all in all. — 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28. 


I am in the Father and the Father 
in me. — John xiv. 10. 

He (the Son) is the head of the 
body, the church. — Col. i. 18. 

Of his (Christ’s) kingdom there 
shall be no end. — Luke i. 33. 

The everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. — 
2 Pet. i. 11. 

Thy throne 0 God is for ever and 
ever. . . Thou art the same. Sit on 
my right hand. — Heh. i. 8, 12, 13. 

Christ is all and in all. — Col. iii. 

11 . 


From these passages, on the one side, we learn that 
J esus Christ as the second Man, the federal Head of 
his church, in ascending to our God and Father has 
ascended to his God and Father*: and that as our 
surety He does his Father’s will : and that a time will 
come when He will no longer exercise his mediatorial 
office, by pleading the virtue of his blood for penitent 
sinners (seeing that sin and death are for ever abol- 


Scott), not Trpwroro/cof, first born. The (-ro/cof) guards this, and the 
npo)TO-, so far from assuming him to be thej^rs^ creature, declares his pre- 
existent priority to all creation, according to the well-known Greek usage 
of the superlative for the comparative, (see John i. 15,) on irpuTog fzov ^v, 
for He was before me: and the clause might have been rendered by that 
in our version of the Athanasian creed. “ Begotten before the worlds.” 
Thus the phrase by itself is an unambiguous testimony to his Deity: and 
the succeeding clauses, ascribing to him the creation of all, prove him in- 
create; for, if a creature, He made himself, which is absurd. 

(2) The beginning of the creation of God, i) apxrj. — Rev. iii. 14. 

Compare with this “ I am, saith the Lord, the beginning and the end 
(37 apxv nAof). — Rev. i. 8, xxi. 6, xxii. 13. 

The above comprise all the instances of the use of apxv f^e Apoca- 
lypse, and sufficiently prove that, as used in ch. iii. 14, it regards the pre- 
existent eternity, the “ from everlasting ” of the Lord, and as such de- 
clares him to be the beginning, or origin, or originator, or precisely as we 
say, the First Cause of the creation of God. 


132 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


ished) : but as the Representative of us, his blood- 
bought children, (for the memory of his dying love 
shall never fade throughout eternity,) will keep his 
Father’s commandments and abide in his love, and that 
thus for. ever and for ever Jehovah shall fill the uni- 
verse with the unclouded effulgence of his everlasting 
name and essence. Love. On the other hand, we 
learn that Christ and his Father are one, that He has 
a real and undivided supremacy, that his kingdom shall 
never wax old, his glory never pale, his royalty never 
pass away ; and that for the endless ages of immortality 
in heaven and earth the manifestation of the love of 
God shall be through him, who is the brightness of his 
Father’s glory, and is seated on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high. 

I append only one couplet more, for the same prin- 
ciple applies to all the passages which have been, or 
can be, brought forward to prove the subordination of 
the Son. 

In the midst of the throne and of A pure river of water of life, clear 
the four living creatures, and in the as crystal, proceeding out of the 
midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as throne of God and of the Lamb. — 
it had been slain. — Rev. v. 6. Rev. xxii. 1. 

Do you gather from the first passage that in Christ 
glorified there are ineffaceable traces of Jesus and him 
crucified ? — from the last you learn that the perennial 
and transparent stream of felicity — the joy of the Holy 
Ghost — flows equally and coordinately from the eter- 
nal Father and the eternal Son. 

I have now, I believe, brought forward the principal 
of those passages on which Unitarians rely. Is there 
anything in any one of them, or in all collectively, 
to prevent our reposing supreme confidence in Jesus 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


133 


Christ ? — do they rebuke our absolute dependence 
upon him ? — do they warn us against loving him 
with every affection of our soul ? 

The Scriptures adduced in the last two chapters, 
brought before us One of such Divine perfections, that 
if He were not God, not the object of supreme reli- 
ance, we should at least have needed a caveat every 
few lines — “ Art thou tempted to worship him ? See 
thou do it not. Though the instrument. He is not the 
author of eternal salvation. Though Godlike, He is 
not God. Though wearing vice-regal honors. He is 
not king. Be on your guard. Control your feelings. 
Curb your aflPections. Moderate your admiration. 
Keep your trust in check. He is only a creature 
after all. Beware of idolatry : and again I say, be- 
ware ! ” Now I ask, do the passages affirming his 
subordination as man, contain that caveat ? — or any- 
thing like such a warning ? — or any, even the faintest 
intimation of the possibility of loving him too much, or 
trusting in him too entirely ? You must confess they 
do not. Yea more, as you stoop down and look into 
these mysteries of his humihatibn, they touch deeper 
and deeper springs within you, they awaken the finer 
sensibilities of your nature, and when you believe that 
He, who was in the form of God, emptied himself for 
you, and took upon him the form of a servant, confi- 
dence and affection alike reach a standard that nothing 
can transcend. You trust him, you love him, you 
adore him supremely, for that exceeding great and 
costly love wherewith He loved you and 
gave himseli tor you. 

And now every generous feeling within you brands 


134 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


it as the basest ingratitude to allege these proofs of his 
humanity in disproof of his Deity, to trample on his 
lowliness that you may pluck the diadem from his 
brow, and to find cause in the true sympathy of him 
who was in all points tempted like as we are, and 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, for denying 
the excellence of that glory which he had with the 
Father before the world was. If a sick and suffering 
prisoner in Newgate, nursed, and tended, and taught, 
by the philanthropic Howard, had argued from the 
self-devotion of that noble man spending long hours in 
the loathsome cell, that he could not possess a princely 
mansion, and a fortune of his own ; and even if he had 
reproached that ministering angel saying, “ you must 
surely be a wretched convict like myself,” we might 
pity his infatuation and pardon his ingratitude : — but 
can we forgive ourselves, if we deliberately select the 
instances of our Lord’s lowest humiliation and cast 
them in his teeth, as proving that He never dwelt from 
eternity in the light that no man can approach unto, 
nor inhabited from everlasting that shrine of unfathom- 
able dehghts, the bo^om of his Father ? Let us be- 
ware, my friends, and remember the solemn warning 
of Jesus, “ Whosoever shall fall on this stone (himself 
in prostrate humility) shall be broken ; but on whom- 
soever it shall fall (himself returning in glo- 
Mat. XXI. 44. grind him to powder.” 

(4) The Word was made flesh. O wondrous hu- 
miliation of the Creator ! But this is not all. “ He 
John i 11 12 many as received him, to them 

gave He power to become the sons of God.” 


THE KOCK OP AGES. 


135 


O wondrous exaltation of us his creatures ! They 
are two mysteries, of which the second is only less 
marvellous than the first. He, the Infinite One, stooped 
to the extremity of woe that He might elevate us to the 
highest life which a created being can enjoy — the life 
of God. And this explains another series of truths, 
which I blush for myself and for human nature to 
confess once troubled my peace, and is I know at the 
present moment darkening the faith of many : I mean 
the exalted expressions which Scripture contains of our 
privileges in Christ. 

What argument, unbelief suggests, can you draw 
from the infinite mutual love of the Father and the 
Son, when Jesus says, “ As the Father loved 
me, so have I loved you ? ” — 


Or from the infinite knowledge possessed by the Son 
of the Father, when He says. No one knoweth the 
Father save the Son, and He to whom the Son 
will reveal him ? — 

Or from the Son being the express image of his 
person, when it is said, we are changed into the 
same image from glory to glory ? — ^ 


Or from his Divine nature as the Son of God, when 
we are joint heirs with him who is the firstr-born among 
many brethren^ and are ourselves partakers of ^om. viii. 17 , 
a Divine nature ? — 2 Pet. i. 4 . 


Or from his words, “ I and my Father are one,” 
when He prays for his people “ that they may 
be one even as we are one? ” — 


John xvii. 22. 


136 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Or from his own mighty miracles, when He prom- 
ises his faithful disciple, Greater works than 
John. XIV. 12. mine) shall he do f — 

Or from his session on the eternal throne, 
Rev. m. 21. share his throne ? — 

Or from his saying. He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father : when He also says, He that hear- 
Luke X. 16. heareth me ? — 

Or from his assurance, “ As the Father knoweth me 
even so know I the Father,” when St. Paul says in the 
confidence of faith, then shall I know even as 

1 Cor. xiii. 12. J ^ _ 

Or from the infinite comprehension imphed in the 
words “The Father sheweth the Son all things that 
himself doeth,” when Jesus says. All things that I have 
heard of my Father^ I have made known unto 

John XV. 15. 

Or from the name of Jesus, “ The Saviour of the 
world, who shall save his people from their sins,” 
when, among the Old Testament saints we 
Neh. ix. 27. there were saviours who saved them; 

1 Cor. ix. 22. when St. Paul says, I became all things to all 
men that I might hy all means save some ; and 
when St. James avers, he that converteth a sinner from 
the error of his way shall save a soul from 

J.me.T.20. 

Or from the express definition, “ the Word was 


THE EOCK OF AGES. 


13T 


God : ” when Christ declares, He called them 
gods to whom the word of God came ? — 

Or from the solemn affirmation, “ In him dwelleth 
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” when Scripture 
records the prayer, “ that ye might he filled even 
to all the fulness of God f ” 

O base unbelief ! O hateful suspicion ! If I have 
done wrong in giving consistent expression to thoughts 
which have been flung as fiery darts against the shield 
of faith, the Lord pardon his servant in this thing ! 
But the answer is conclusive, and the suggestion unan- 
swered may rankle in many breasts. I do not now 
insist on the exceeding ingratitude of the return — to 
take advantage of the infinite love of Christ and say, 
the believer is advanced to so high a dignity, and is 
admitted to such Divine delights, there can surely be 
no difference betwixt him and the eternal Son of God ; 
but, I ask, what saith the Scripture to this objection of 
the glories of Christ, and of his redeemed, being from 
time to time described in apparently similar terms ? 

In the first place most of the attributes and names of 
Christ are never predicated of his people : they are his 
own essential prerogatives : they are incommunicable. 
Then if we take up one by one, those passages whose 
force is thought to be neutralized by the corresponding 
privileges of saints, we shall see how, in each case, the 
privilege of the believer is derived from Christ, or from 
the Father through Christ, (the context compelling 
this,) and is limited by the finite capacity of the crea- 
ture ; while the supereminent glory of Christ is either 
underived, eternal, increate, — or, if given, is expressly 


138 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


given to him in his subordinate character as Mediator. 
And, lastly, no pretension of trust in any saint or saints 
is founded on the privileges conferred on him or them 
in the Gospel. 

As to the first point, you may easily verify it for 
yourself, by referring to chapters iii. and iv. Where is 
any saint said to be the only-begotten Son of God, the 
First and the. Last, from everlasting, the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever, omnipresent, omniscient, infi- 
nitely good, the creator and preserver of all things, the 
chief shepherd of the flock, the one master and lord, the 
bridegroom of the bride, Jehovah ? Nowhere. There- ^ 
fore setting these disputed passages aside for a while, 
even without them the proof remains incontrovertible. 

Secondly, let us examine this alleged similarity more 
closely. But to deprecate a hasty conclusion from a 
bare resemblance of words, I would remind you, there 
are a few instances in Scripture in which the same 
phrase denotes a prerogative of the Supreme Father, 
and a privilege of his beheving child. Thus we find. 
Mat. xix. 26. “With God all things are possible.” And 
again, “ All things are possible to him that 
Mark ix. 23. believeth.” Would you, because of the 
sameness of the terms employed, deny the omnipotence 
of God, or ascribe omnipotence to the believer ? 
Mat V 48 Again, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
your Father in heaven is perfect.” Would 
you, because of the perfection of the saint, deny the 
infinite goodness of the Father ; or because of the ab- 
solute perfection of the Father, ascribe illimitable good- 
ness to the saint ? Here, indeed, “ Knowledge 
Prov. xiT. 6. jg understandeth.” Let us, 

however, proceed to examine them : — 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


139 


The Father loveth the Son, and As the Father hath loved me, so 
hath given all things unto his hands, have I loved you : continue ye in 
He that believeth on the Son hath my love. If ye keep my command- 
everlasting hfe. — John iii. 35, 36. ments, ye shall abide in my love. — 

John XV. 9, 10. 

In the first quotation, supreme authority is assigned 
to Christ, as the heir of all things for his Church ; 
and the trust of mankind centres on him. In the 
second. He is urging his disciples as defectible beings, 
by the plea of the infinite fulness of his love towards 
them, infinite so far as regarded himself, to abide in 
that love from which without him they would assur- 
edly fall, for without me, as He had iust said, 
ye can do nothing. 

All things are delivered unto me And he to whomsoever the Son 
of my Father, and no one knoweth will reveal him. — ib. 
the Son but the Father; neither 
knoweth any one the Father, save 
the Son ; — Mat. xi. 27. 

The first part is again accompanied by the declara- 
tion of the Son’s unhmited inheritance of all things. 
The second is qualified by the previous assertion that 
these things were revealed to babes, and their finite 
knowledge of the Father is granted through the Son, 
as the efficient cause. 

The express image of his person. Changed into the same image. — 
— Heh. i. 3. 2 Cor. iii. 18. 

The first clause is extracted from that chapter which 
so illustriously proves the Godhead of Christ. The 
second refers all the transformation to the view of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, ^ 

revealed progressively by the Lord, the 
Spirit. 


140 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Unto which of the angels said He Sons of God. 
at any time: Thou art ray Son, this Joint heirs with Christ, 
day have I begotten theeV — Heb. 

i. 5. [The first-born,] among many 

brethren. — Rom, viii. 14, 17, 29. 

We have here another testimony to Christ, which 
connects itself with all those passages affirming that 
in a sense peculiar to himself He is the Son of God; 

standing forth as the Son, the only-begot- 
ten of the Father, the Son of his love, his 
own Son, the Son of the living God, the 
Son of the Blessed, the Son of the Highest. 
From a cursory glance into the eighth of Romans, 
we see how infinite the difference betwixt that essen- 
tial Sonship, and our privileges, as adopted sons, 
which are only ours in Christ ; and thus it is, as St. 
Peter writes, through the righteousness of our God 
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, through the knowledge of 
God and of Jesus our Lord, that we become 

2 Pet. i. 4. 

partakers of a (not the) Divine nature. 

I and my Father are one. — John That they may be one even as we 
X. 30. are one. — John xvii. 22. 

On the first, hangs the security of the church uni- 
versal, which is safe, whether held in his hand, or, to 
vary the aspect of truth, held in his Father’s hand ; 
equally safe, for He and his Father are one in essence, 
power, operation, and will. From the second, we 
learn how intimate is the union of the saints with each 
other, and the Lord ; hut, unutterably glorious as are 
the privileges besought by Christ for his people in that 
sublime prayer, they all fiow equally from the Father, 
and from himself (v. 3) as the one fountain of eternal 
life. 


John i. 14. 1 

Col. i. 13. 
Rom. viii. 32. i 
Mat. xvi.l6. I 
Mark xiv. 61. 
Luke i. 32. J 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 141 

The works that 1 do, in my Fa- Greater works than these shall he 
ther’s name, bear witness of me. — do. — John xiv. 12. 

John X. 25. 


In the former, the works are appealed to as proof of 
his right to be the Shepherd of his flock, and the Mes- 
siah of Israel. In the latter, all the miracles, as He 
had just stated, are wrought by faith in him, “ he 
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he 
do also.” 

To the Son he saith. Thy throne. To him that overcometh will 1 
0 God, is for ever and ever. — Heb. grant to sit with me in my throne, 
i. 8. — Rev. iii. 21. 

It only needs the collation of the verses, to see the 
immeasurable difference betwixt the universal suprem- 
acy belonging of right to Christ for ever, and the 
favor granted by him to his people of reigning with 
him. 

He that hath seen me hath seen He that heareth you heareth me. 
the Father. — John xiv. 9. LuTce x. 16. 


The first explains, how knowledge of himself em- 
braces knowledge of the Father, and vindicates his 
claim to be the way, and the truth, and the life. The 
second clothes his messengers with an ambassador's 
official authority, as speaking in loco regis. 

As the Father knoweth me, even Then shall I know even as also I 
so know I the Prather. — John x. am known. — 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 

15. 

The good Shepherd, who is to know thor- 

® ^ ’ . . John X. 14. 

oughly all his sheep, needs omniscience ; this, 
the first proves. From the second, we are assured 
that in heaven our knowledge will be not fragmentary 
as here, but so far as it extends.^ will resemble Christ’s 


142 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


knowledge of us, being perfect, symmetrical, unper- 
plexed. 

The Father sheweth the Son all All things that I have heard of 
things that himself doeth. — John v. my Father, I have made known 
20. unto you. — John xv. 15. 

The first is accompanied (see p. 107) with eveiy Divine 
claim. The second is qualified by the quickly succeed- 
ino; assurance, “ I have yet many things to say 

Johnxvi. 12. ^ 

unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 

Christ, the Saviour of the world. Thou gavest them saviours, who 
— John iv. 42. saved them. — Neh. ix. 27. 


Jesus, who delivered us from the ’ He that converteth a sinner . . . 
wrath to come. — 1 Thess. i. 10. shall save a soul from death. — 

James v. 20. 

It needs only a glance at the parallel passages, (page 
72, No. 20,) to see how infinite is the difference be- 
twixt him who stands forth emphatically the Author 
of eternal salvation, and those who were deliverers 
of their countiy from oppression, or were instruments 
as the ministers of Jesus Christ in the salvation of 
souls. 

The word was God. — J(Jin i. 1. He called them gods, to whom the 

word of God came. — John x. 36. 

In the first, the context compels us to understand 
(Geof) God, when applied to the Word, in the same 
sense as when immediately before and after applied 
to the Father: the Word is essentially God, the 
Creator of all. The second, conceding indeed that 
there is a lower sense in which men were sometimes 
officially called gods, (though the passage adduced 
Ps.ixxxii. 6, niarks their mortality — they shortly die like 
other men,) contrasts with this the Divine 
Sonship of the Messiah. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


143 


In him dwelleth all the fulness of That ye might be filled even to 
the Godhead bodily. — 0)1. ii. 9. all [slg ttuv) the fulness of God. — 

£))h. iii. 19. 

The first affirms the incarnate Godhead of Christ as 
the One in whom (see next clause, v. 10,) we are 
complete, for He is the head of all principality and 
power. The second (somewhat obscured by the re- 
ceived translation) imports that we may be filled 
“ each in our degree and to the utmost bound of our 
finite capacity, even as God is full, with Divine good- 
ness : ” and this again flows from our knowledge of 
the illimitable love ^of Christ. 

The difficulties, when fairly tried by the context in 
each case, crumble into dust ; and the formidable line 
of objections founded on them melt like embankments 
of snow, when exposed to the full light of other Scrip- 
tures which assert the true Godhead of the Son. 

But now, I ask, do these contrasted truths divert 
us from reposing supreme trust in Jesus Christ ? Do 
they, even so far as this, confuse our confidence, by 
setting up any other as the recipient of equal honor? 
Because the saints are loved with Divine love, know 
God, are changed into his image, are called his sons, 
are made one with the Father and with Christ, work 
mighty works by his power, are raised to Christ’s 
throne, shall hereafter possess a perfect knowledge, 
are made acquainted with the mysteries of Gospel 
grace, may even officially be called gods, and what 
is a far higher privilege, be filled with all Divine 
goodness, — is any claim set up on their behalf for 
trust or worship ? Gather together all the privileges of 
Christians here set forth ; entwine them into one radi- 
ant crown ; place that crown, as you are perfectly 


144 


THE BOOK OP AGES. 


warranted in doing, upon the head of some eminent 
saint, Peter, or Paul, or John, or upon the head of 
the Church Catholic, the Bride, is there in all these 
lustrous glories any temptation held out to confide 
in absolutely, or supremely to love that saint or that 
church ? 

We acknowledge the extremity of abasement to which 
Jesus descended. We believe the summit of glory to 
which He will raise his people. We accept the simple 
declarations of Scripture with regard to both these 
facts. But for a man to take his stand alternately 
on the lowest step of Christ’s humiliation, and on the 
highest step of his children’s exaltation, and thence to 
deny the Supreme Deity of him who stooped so low 
that He might draw us up so high, seems an ingrati- 
tude of which our dealings with our fellow-men afford 
no parallel. 

We referred before to the opening of the 

See p. 63. i 

Hpistle to the Hphesians — Scripture does not 
contain a more rich exhibition of those things which 
are ours in Christ : now if St. Paul had closed that 
chapter by arrogating Christ-like honors or Christ-like 
homage to himself and his brethren, there would have 
been some ground for alarm that the dignities of his 
people were eclipsiftg the supremacy of their Lord. 
How different is the spirit breathed through his glow- 
ing prayer : — 

“ That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, 
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge 
of him ; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may 
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of 
his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his 
power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty 
power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, 
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


145 


principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and hath 
put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head 
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness 
of him that filleth all in all.” 


Eph. i. 17-23. 


Behold, the Son is on the everlasting throne : and 
we are under his feet. Moved indeed, by Divine 
compassion. He once forsook that throne, and came 
forth from the bosom of his Father, that He might 
gather together the children of God which are scat- 
tered abroad, and present them as one family before 
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Is your 
trust weakened in him because of his exceeding humil- 
iation ? or do you think the less of him for the glory 
to which He elevates his people ? Nay, verily : grati- 
tude can find no words to express itself when we be- 
lieve on him who, being over all, God blessed for ever, 
partook of our flesh and blood, and now seated far 
above all principahty and power, is not 
ashamed to call us brethren. 


7 


146 


THE BOCK OF AGES. 


CHAPTER VI. 

And now I would state my next proposition, and 
briefly sketch the testimony on which it rests. 

That Scripture in the Old and the New Testament 
alike proves the coequal Grodhead of the Holy Spirit 
with that of the Father and of the Son, 

May the same Spirit grant us reverence, and humil- 
ity, and Godly fear in this solemn inquiry ! 

The reader will not fail to observe what strong col- 
lateral evidence of the possible plurality in unity, and 
therefore of the possible coequal Deity of the Father 
and of the Son, we shall obtain, if another be revealed 
in Scripture ; 

as one who is to be distinguished from the Father 
and the Son ; 

as one to whom such personal properties and actions 
are assigned as prove independent and intelligent 
personality ; 

as one to whom Divine attributes are ascribed, and 
by whom Divine offices are exercised ; 

as one worshipped in parity with the Father and the 
Son ; 

as one declared to be Jehovah and God. 

Here, indeed, we might expect the evidence to be more 
subjective : for the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost in 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


147 


the economy of redemption, is ever represented as the 
quickening and fostering of the hidden life within. It 
is, however, none the less conclusive. If, as we gaze 
on the sun shining in the firmament, we see any faint 
adumbration of the doctrine of the Trinity in the fontal 
orb, the light ever generated, and the heat proceeding 
from the sun and its beams — threefold and yet one, 
the sun its light and its heat : — that luminous globe, 
and the radiance ever flowing from it, are both evident 
to the eye, but the vital warmth is felt, not seen, 
and is only manifested in the life it transfuses through 
creation. The proof of its real existence is self-demon- 
strating. 

(1) That the Divine Spirit is to be distinguished 
from the Father and the Son, appears from all those 
passages in holy Scripture, which reveal to us the 
simultaneous cooperation of three infinite agents. 

Thus when we read, at our Lord’s baptism, of the 
voice of the Father, of the human presence of Jesus, of 
the visible descent of the Spirit, for “ the heaven was 
opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily 
shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from 
heaven, which said. Thou art my beloved ^uke m. 21 , 
Son, in thee I am well pleased:” — we are 
compelled to say, that the descending Spirit is distinct 
from the baptized Saviour, and from the approving 
Father. 

And when Jesus says, “ I will pray the Father, 
and He shall give you another Comforter, 
that He may abide with you for ever : ” and 
when this promise being fulfilled on the day of Pente- 
cost, we find that the Holy Ghost appeared seated on 


148 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


the disciples as cloven tongues of fire : we 
are constrained to acknowledge that the ap- 
parent Spirit is distinct from the mediating Saviour, 
and the Father who decreed the gift. And when we 
Mat. xxviii. read of “the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” and again of 
“ the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
2 Cot. xiii. 14. Grod, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,” 
it is impossible to deny the necessary distinc- 
tion here affirmed. 

And when the saints are described as “ elect accord- 
ing to the foreknowledge of God the Father through 
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,” 
Scripture leads us to conclude that as the bleeding 
Saviour is distinct from the predestinating Father, so 
the sanctifying Spirit is himself distinct. 

And when the benediction of grace and peace is 
implored from (dTro) him which is, and which was, and 
which is to come ; and firom (kuI utto) “ the seven spirits 
which are before the throne ; * and from (Kal 
and) Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,” we are 


1 Pet. i. 2. 


Rev. i. 4, 6. 


* The phrase is emblematical, but not the less definitive and precise 
when compared with other Scriptures. Indeed, emblems are a kind of 
univemal language for every age and country. After all that has been 
written on this subject, I feel persuaded that the word is here its own 
plain interpreter. The principal passages bearing on this are — 

(1) “ The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest on him; the spirit of wisdom and 
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 
Isai xi 2 3 Jehovah, and shall make him of quick 

understanding in the fear of Jehovah.” I do not think any 
stress can be laid on the number here, as the Hebrew only enumerates six, 
repeating the last with a preposition — (though the Septuagint distinguish 
seven, Trvevfia co<pi(iq, — crvviasuc, — (3ov?i7jg, — iax^og, — yvuoetjg, — 
evae^dcu,, — adding as the seventli, Twevfia <l>6(3ov deov) — but on the 
multiplicity of perfections designated by various names and comprised in 
one, the Spirit of Jehovah. 


THE KOCK OF AGES. 


149 


assured that as there is a distinction intended between 
the eternal Father and the Lord Jesus, so is there like- 
wise betwixt them and the sevenfold Spirit of God. 

(2) “ Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.” Zech. hi. 9. 

“ Those seven; they are the eyes of Jehovah, which run to Zech. iv. 10. 

and fro through the whole earth.” The Septuagint translate 

the seven in the same clause with the eyes, eirra ovtol b^daliioi eloiv ol 

e'!n(3?JTrovTeg ini Trdaav rrjv yrjv, 

(3) “And from the seven* spirits which are before the „ . . 

throae.” i. 

(4) “ These things saith He that hath the seven spirits ... , 

of God.” Rev.m.l. 

(5) “ And seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, 

which are the seven spirits of God.” Kev. iv. 6. 

(6) “ In the midst of the throne and of the four living crea- 
tures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had ' 

been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits 
of God sent forth into aU the earth.” (b(^'&ak^oi)g enTO, ol eiaiv rd eTrrd tov 
Q eov Ttvevfiara rd dTveoTaXfjiEva eig ndaav ttjv yiyv.) No one can fail re- 
marking the designed coincidence betwixt this and the Septuagint version, 
given above, of Zech. iv. 10. 

Here we learn, 

— from (3) and (5) the, distinction to be observed between God and 
the seven spirits — for they are said to be before the throne. 
Therefore you could not identify them with the Father or the 
Lamb. 

— from (2) and (4) and (6) the mysteinovs union betwixt God and them 
— for they are called the eyes of Jehovah; the spirits whom the 
Son of Man hath — the eyes of the Lamb. 

— from (3) again, that they denote a willing intelligence and not an 
abstract power — for to imagine that St. John prays to seven abstrac- 
tions in parity with the Father and the Son for grace and peace is 
inconceivable. 

That they cannot be angels is manifest, for the worshipping coi. a. 18. 
of angels is expressly forbidden. 

Comparing, therefore, the other passages with (1) — remem- isai. L\i. 1. 
bering how Jesus Christ says that the Scripture “ The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me” was fulfilled in himself — Luke iv. 21. 
and knowing that “ in the oriental style the perfection of any quality is 
expressed by the number seven,” — we may fairly conclude this expres- 
sion represents to us “ this heavenly Agent, the Holy Ghost, in his own 
original and infinite perfection, in the consummate wisdom of his opera- 
tions, and in the gracious munificence of his gifts.” 


150 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


In this stage of our inquiry it will be enough to ask 
ourselves, in the cases cited above, was the cooperating 
Spirit identical with the Father or with the Son ? 
Could you say it was the Father or the Son who de- 
scended on Christ at his baptism, or on the apostles at 
Pentecost ? Could you assert that we are baptized 
into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
one who likewise is the Father,* or the Son ? Or that 
grace and peace are besought from the eternal Father, 
and from one who under another name is also the 
Father, and from Jesus Christ? No one could main- 
tain this for a moment. The Holy Ghost therefore, 
cannot be identified or confounded either with the eter- 
nal Father, or with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 

(2) I proceed then, to consider, that such personal 
properties and actions are ascribed to the Spirit as prove 
independent, and intelligent personality. 

But, it is asked, do we not read of the Spirit of God 
being “ poured out,” and “ given in greater or less de- 
gree? ” If He were a Person, how could He be thus 
effused or divided ? Here we fully admit that the 
terms “ spirit ” and “ holy spirit,” do sometimes denote 
not the person, but the operations, the gifts, the infiu- 
ences of the Holy Ghost : as, for example, when it is 
Numbers xi ^ Spirit that is upon 

thee.” But the question is not whether some 
passages may not be brought forward which denote the 
operations and influences of the Spirit, and therefore 
do not establish the point ; but whether besides these 
there are not very numerous portions of Scripture 
which d/} positively and unanswerably establish his 
personality. Just as if I were studying a work on 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


151 


horticulture, and because the writer here and there 
used the term “ sun ” to denote the influences of the 
’sun, directing me to place certain plants in the sun, or 
that more or less sun should be admitted, I were to con- 
tend, that the author could not believe there was actu- 
ally such a globe of light in the heavens, although in 
many other parts he had spoken in most strict as- 
tronomical language of our planetary system. You 
would justly assure me, that the occasional recurrence 
of such familiar phrases as “ more or less sun, &c.” was 
no valid argument against his conviction of the sun’s 
real existence, stated elsewhere in the volume plainly 
and positively. Now, we admit, that by “ the spirit,” 
are sometimes intended the gifts and graces of the 
Spirit. These graces may be poured out — these gifts 
distributed. But “ all these worketh that one and the 
self-same Spirit, dividing to every man sever- . 
ally as He will.”* 

Now if, altogether apart from this investigation, you 
had been asked to name those qualities which evidence 
personal existence, you would have been quite content 
to answer : show me that which has mind, and afiec- 
tion, and will, which can act, and speak, and direct ; 
and that sentient, loving, determining agent, speaker, 
and ruler, must possess personality, or personality can- 
not exist. 

But we read in Scripture of — 

The mind of the Spirit, “ He that searcheth the 

hearts knoweth what is the mind for inten- ^ ... ^ 

^ . Rom. viu. 27 . 

tion) of the Spirit, because He maketh inter- 
cession.” 


* The substance of the above paragraph is taken from a valuable 
sermon of the Rev. J. E. Bates, “ On the Holy Spirit.” 


152 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Rom. XT. 13. 


The infinite comprehension of the Spirit, “ The 
things of God knoweth no one, save the 

lCor.ii.il. ^ ^ . T . 

spirit 01 God. bee next section, where 
this passage is referred to more at length, 
j h Ti 13 forehrwwledge of the Spirit, “ He 

will shew you things to come.” 

The power of the Spirit, “ That ye may abound 
in hope through the power of the Holy 
Ghost.” If the Spirit were a metonymy 

for the power of God, this would be a most unhkely 
combination. 

The love of the Spirit, “ I beseech you for the love 

of the Spirit” aydTrijc tov IlvsvfiaTog) : 

a plea exactly corresponding with one he had 
used shortly before. “ I beseech you, by 
the mercies of God ” (did tuv oiKTtpfuiv tov Qeov). 

The self-determining will of the Spirit, “ Divid- 
icor.xii.il. ing to every man severally as he will.” 
We find — 

He creates and gives life, “ The Spirit of God hath 
made me, and the breath of the Almighty 
jobxxxm.4. given me fife.” And again, “By the 

word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the 
host of them by the breath (Spirit) of his mouth.” 

He strives with the ungodly, “ My Spirit 
oen.Ti. 3. always strive with man.” 

He convinces of sin, righteousness, and judg- 


Rom. xii. 1. 


John xri. 8. 


ment. 


John iii. 5-8. 
Acts Till. 29. 


xi. 12. 


He new creates the soul, “ Born of the 
Spirit.” 

He commands and forbids, “ The Spirit 
said to Philip, Go near. — The Spirit bade 
me go with them. — The Holy Ghost said. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


153 


Separate me Barnabas and Saul. — Being forbidden 
by the Holy Ghost to preach. — The Spirit Acts xui. 2. 
suffered them not.” 6, 7. 

He appoints Ministers in the Church. “ The flock 
over which the Holy Ghost hath made you 

„ ^ Acts XX. 28. 

overseers. 

He inspired the sacred writers. “ Holy 
men spake as they were moved by the Holy 2 Pet. i. 21. 
Ghost.” 

He speaketh expressly of events in the latter ^ ^ 

times. 

He saith to the Churches the messages of 

„ - ° Key. u. 7, &e. 

the Son oi Man. 

He performs miracles. “ So the Spirit took 
me up, and I heard behind me a voice — The 
Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the Eze. vm. 3. 
heaven.” The Spirit gave them utterance at Acts u. 4 . 
Pentecost. The Spirit of the Lord caught 

• , . ® Acts yiii. 39. 

away Philip. Mighty signs and wonders 

(were done) by the power of the Spirit of Rom. xv. i9. 

God. 

He caused the virgin Mary to conceive. Luke i. 35. 
He works in all saints, dispensing divers j 4. 

gifts with independent spontaneity of choice. 

He regenerates and seals His people, for we 
are saved by His renewing ; and are sealed 
unto the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit 
of God. 

He intercedes for us in prayers, for He helpeth 
our infirmities . . . and maketh intercession 
for us. 

He teaches and comforts and guides us into all truth. 
For Christ promises, “ The Comforter which is the 
7* 


Rom. yiii. 26. 


154 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


John xiv. 26. 


xvi. 13, 14. 


Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
He {BKeivoc) shall teach you all things — shall 
testify of me — shall guide you into all truth 
— shall glorify me — and shall take of mine, 
and shew it unto you.” 

He can he vexed and grieved. “ They returned and 
isai. ixiii. 10. vexed his Holy Spirit.” “ Grieve not the 
Eph.iv.3o. Holy Spirit of God.” 

Se is designated hy the use of masculine pronouns^ 
though the noun itself Spirit., is neuter. “ When He, 
the Spirit {kKeivo^ rd Uvevfia) of truth is come. 
He will guide you,” and so continually in this 
context, where it might be rendered “ This person the 
Spirit.” Thus likewise ; “ That holy Spirit 
of promise, who (3f) is the earnest.” 

ITe testifies with personal witnesses. “ He 
shall testify, and ye also testify.” — “We are 
his witnesses of these things, and so is also 
the Holy Ghost.” 

He approves with personal counsellors. “ It 
Acts XV. 28. seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to 
us.” 


John xvi. 13. 


Eph. i. 14. 


John XV. 26 
27. 


Acts V. ^ 


He invites with personal messengers. “ The 
Rev. xxu. 17. gp— ^ bride say. Come.” 

He is personally present in a sense in which Jesus is 
personally absent. “ It is expedient for you that I go 
away, for if I go not away the Comforter 
John XVI. 7. not come unto you.” 

He can he personally blasphemed (as Christ may be 
personally blasphemed) hut only upon peril of eternal 
condemnation. “ Whosoever speaketh a word against 
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whoso- 
ever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


155 


forgiven him, neither in this world neither in 

1 7 j X *■ Mat. xii. 32. 

the world to come. 

He crie8 in our hearts^ “ Abba Father.” oai. iv. 6. 

He repeats the beatitude pronounced on those who sleep 
in Jesus, “ Yea, saith the Spirit, for they 

p , . 1 , ,, ^ Rev. xiv. 13. 

rest from their labors. 

Surely from a calm and comprehensive study of this 
testimony, we must conclude that if these qualities and 
actions do not prove personality, there are none, how- 
ever explicit and exact, which can do so. Unitarians 
are wont to speak of the Spirit, as an effusion or 
emanation separate from God, or an influence or power 
exercised by God. Can you speak of the mind of an 
effusion ? — of an emanation, knowing the depths of 
him from whom it distils ? — of an influence, or power, 
or aught impersonal, revealing future events ; possess- 
ing a power, and love, and will of its own ; creating, 
striving, convincing, recreating ; enjoying, prohibiting, 
commissioning ; inspiring, speaking expressly, address- 
ing the church ; performing miracles, transporting, giv- 
ing utterance ; energizing, regenerating, seahng ; inter- 
ceding, teaching, comforting, guiding ; being vexed and 
grieved ; testifying, approving, inviting ; being present 
as a personal Comforter who may be personally blas- 
phemed, crying in us until He teaches us to cry Abba 
Father, and repeating on earth the heaven-sent bene- 
diction on departed saints ? If in some few instances 
you might thus personify an influence, most of those 
adduced, taken singly, resist such an interpretation ; 
and taken collectively, would, if thus understood, con- 
fuse all the laws of language, and thus derange the 
first principles of truth. 

It is not easy to translate into our own tongue the 


156 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


proof we obtain ^ from a study of the original here. 
But suppose in a volume of history you met ’svith the 
following passage : — “ The prince having left this 
province thought good that his majesty’s power should 
occupy his room ; as for this power, he knew the secret 
counsels of the king ; he had an independent will ; he 
strove with the ill-affected, and was grieved and vexed 
with the obstinacy of some, while others he convinced 
of their infatuation, and was enabled to train us good 
citizens ; he consoled the well-disposed ; he issued com- 
mands and restrictions at his own pleasure; he ap- 
pointed subordinate officers ; he spoke expi’essly of the 
certain issue of some incipient plots ; he accomplished 
prodigies of benevolence : indeed such was the authority 
of this power, that whoever wilfully insulted him, was 
by the king’s command imprisoned for life, while on 
the other hand, he was accustomed to repeat assurances, 
which came direct from court, of the favor awarded 
there to faithful subjects.” Would you, could you 
doubt for a moment whether or not this power was a 
personal intelligent agent ? And if a few pages further 
on in the book, you read, “ And thus his Majesty’s 
power was extended and his dominion consolidated,” 
would you because of the repetition of the term power^ 
or his Majesty's power ^ confuse the latter abstraction 
with the former person — would you gainsay your 
previous unhesitating conclusion, that the power left in 
that province was a living person ? It is impossible. 
You would say, honest language, though capable of 
metaphor, is incapable of such delusive impersonations. 
So likewise the witness of Scripture, which we have 
heard, is unequivocal that the Holy Spirit is a living 
Agent working with consciousness, will, and love. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 157 

(3) Now to this agent Divine attributes are ascribed, 
and by him Divine offices are exercised towards us. 

He is eternal. “ Christ through the eternal 
{aitiVLov) Spirit offered himself.” This is the 
same word which is used of the self-existence 
from everlasting to everlasting of Jehovah. 

He is omnipresent. “ Whither shall I go from thy 
Spirit ? Or whither shall I flee from thy pg cxxxix. 
presence ? If I ascend up into heaven Thou 
art there.” Having proved his distinct personality, 
this establishes his omnipresence : which truth is in- 
deed self-evident, from the simultaneous work he is 
carrying on in ten thousand thousand hearts through- 
out the universe. 

He is omniscient. For He alone with the infinite Son, 
comprehends the incomprehensible Jehovah. “ God 
hath revealed them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit 
searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. For 
what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit 
of man which is in him ? Even so, the things of God 
knoweth no one but the Spirit of God.” The word 
search.) as used in Scripture, does not necessarily imply 
that successive acquisition of knowledge which belongs 
to a finite being, for Jehovah says, “ I, the 
Lord, search the heart.” “ And that the 
Spirit here is not a mere quality of Divine nature, as 
consciousness is of the human mind, appears from the 
first clause, ‘ God hath revealed them to us by his 
Spirit,’ which clearly implies a personal distinction ; 
for it could not be said that a man makes any- p 
thing known to others by his consciousness.” 

He is prescient and unveils futurity. “ It was re- 
vealed to him (Simeon) by the Holy Ghost that he 


158 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


should not see death before he had seen the 
Luke u. 26. Christ.” “ He will shew you things 

johnxvi.13. to come.” And St. John was in the Spirit 
Rev. i. 10 when he was enabled to cast his eye across 
iv. 1 , 2. the chart of providence. 

He is absolutely free and independent. “ Uphold 
Ps. li. 12. me with thy free Spirit. The wind bloweth 
John iii. 8. where it hsteth — so is every one that is bom 

1 Cor. xii. 11. of the Spirit. Dividing as He willeth. 

2 Cor ui 17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 

liberty.” 

He is infinitely good and holy. “ Thou gavest thy 
Neh. ix. 20 . good Spirit to iustruct them.” “ Thy Spirit 
Ps.cxiui.io. is good.” He is called in the Old Testament 
Ps. u. 11. emphatically, the Holy Spirit of God. He 
isai. ixiii. 10 , is repeatedly styled by our Lord, the Holy 
Spirit. And this is his distinctive designation 
j^hnSv.^^e, hy the apostles throughout the New Testa- 
ment. He is likewise called the Spirit of 
, . tmth, and the Spirit of holiness, as the foun- 

John xiv. 17. . . ^ ’ 

Rom. i. 4 . tain of verity and goodness. 

He is the Almighty Creator of all things. Here it 
may suffice to quote one passage which may well set 
the question at rest for ever. “ Who hath measured 
the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out 
heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the 
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance ? Who hath directed 
the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath 
taught him ? With whom took He counsel, 

Isai. xl. 12 - 14 . ® ' 

and who instmcted him ? ” No words could 
express more plainly an intelhgent Creator, inferior 
to none, whose wisdom was his own, whose counsel 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


159 


was underived, whose omnipotence was inherent. 
What reflex light this casts on the simple declaration 
of Genesis, “ The Spirit of God moved on 
the face of the waters.” 

In His hands are the issues of life and death. “ The 
Spirit of God hath made me. — Thou sendest job xxxiu. 4. 
forth thy Spirit; they are created. — The Ps.civ.29,30. 
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because 
the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it ; 
surely the people is grass.” isai.xi. 7. 

And then, as to the life of God within us, He is the 
author and finisher of it. He begets and 
quickens the soul, once dead in trespasses John m. 6. 
and sins. He teaches us to pray. He dwells Rom. ym. 26. 
in us, as in his temple. He produces his own 1 Cor. ni. le. 
celestial fruits. He sheds abroad the love of Gai. v. 22, 23. 
God in our hearts. He seals us unto the day 
of redemption. He works in us, educates us, 30 . 
comforts us, leads us, and bears witness with 9, 

our spirit that we are the children of God. 

He carries on the work of sanctification, 
changes us into the Divine image from glory 2 cor. m. is. 
to glory. And by him, as the One who 1 R®*- is. 
quickened Christ our Head, will God quicken 
our mortal bodies at the last day. Rom. viu. 11. 

Now I venture to ask, as I asked respecting the tes- 
timony of Jesus, who can believe these explicit declara- 
tions of the character and work of the Holy Spirit, 
and not repose their whole confidence in him — resting 
on him with supreme reliance, and loving him with 
entire devotion ? Consider, He is eternal, everywhere 
present, infinite in wisdom, prescient, absolutely just, 
and is perfect in goodness and grace and truth ! Con- 


160 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


sider, further, so close and necessary is our relationship 
to him, that He is the Almighty Creator of that world 
in which we live ; that He gives us every breath we 
draw, and that He suspends that breath when we die. 
Consider, the whole work of the spiritual life within us, 
from its earliest germ to its latest development, is his 
operation. What frail and finite creature, like man, 
believing this testimony, could, in the presence of such 
an One, refuse to render him adoring trust and love ? 
If Scripture forbade these emotions, as due only to 
Deity, we should be rent in twain. But does Scripture 
forbid them ? Nay, verily. You cannot find the 
faintest hint against depending on the Holy Spirit too 
absolutely. There is no jealousy of his claims. The 
most humble submission to his education is ever en- 
Eph. iv. 30. forced ; any violation of reverent regard is 
iThess. V. 19. (deprecated with a plaintive earnestness of 
expostulation ; and wilful blasphemy against him is 
fenced with the most awful warning in the whole word 
of God. Such is the efficacy of his personal presence, 
that it is represented as compensating the personal ab- 
sence of Jesus. Every affectionate and trustful desire 
is awakened in you ; for in the comfort He imparts, as 
explained by Christ, is comprised the communication 
of every Divine blessing. The claims of no benefactor 
can transcend those of him who gives us life and hght, 
emancipating us from the thraldom of sin, and bringing 
us into the freedom of love. Only believe these Scrip- 
tures and you must, perforce, trust and love this Divine 
Spirit supremely. This homage belongs to God alone, 
whose name is Jealous, who will not give his glory to 
another. Therefore we conclude and confess that the 
Holy Ghost is one with God, and is himself God, him- 
self Jehovah. 


THE EOCK OP AGES. 


161 


(4) This is further established by the fact that the 
Spirit of God is revealed in Scripture as the object of 
religious worship in parity with the Father and the Son. 

The sixth chapter of Isaiah compared with J ohn xii. 
41, has already proved to us that God manifested him- 
self to the prophet by the express image of his Person, 
his only-begotten Son. The voice wliich spake is 
distinctly said to he the voice of Jehovah, yi. g. 
But the message then sent is again re- 
corded by St. Paul, and is prefaced with this remark- 
able introduction; “Well spake the Holy ^(.tsxxviii. 
Ghost by Esaias the prophet.” The glory 
of Jehovah of hosts was then revealed by Jesus Christ, 
and the voice of Jehovah was the utterance of the 
Holy Ghost. Now we decipher the true significance 
of the threefold adoration of the veiled seraphim, 
“ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts,” and jg^j. yj. 3 . 
dimly apprehend why it was asked, “ Who 
will go for us ? ” The angels of light, there- verses, 
fore, worship the Holy Spirit with the Father and the 
Son. 

I would mention in passing, without laying stress 
upon it, the impressive, vision of Ezekiel, in the valley 
of dry bones, in which he is commanded to address the 
wind, Qzveviia — LXX.') “ Prophesy unto the wind, 
prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind. Thus 
saith the Lord God ; Come from the four winds, O 
breath, and breathe upon these slain that they j-ze. xxxvii. 
may live.” The wind is evidently typical of 
the Spirit, for it is said in the interpretation of the 
vision, “ I will put my Spirit in you, and ye 
shall live ; ” and to my own mind the proc- verse 14. 
lamation to the wind is typical of prayer 


162 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Compare to the Spirit for his energizing power in 
27, with 37. quickening dead souls to the life of God. 

The baptismal formulary, however, affords an unam- 
biguous testimony. For “ baptism is a solemn act of 
worship, denoting entire consecration to him in whose 
name we are baptized. It is the stipulation 
(k-KEpciTYifia, Greek legal term) of a good con- 
science toward God. Now the existence of a stipular- 
tion implies the presence, or in some way the knowl- 
edge and acceptance of, the person to whom the 
engagement is made. It supposes then, in this case, 
the presence or cognizance of the Son and 
the Spirit equally with that of the Father.” 
Here again we have, by our Lord’s express command, 
adoring homage paid to the Holy Ghost in union with 
the Father and himself, at this sacred profession of 
every Christian’s faith. 

I would also ask you to compare — 

0 come let us worship and bow Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost 
down : let us kneel before the Lord saith, To-day if ye will hear his 
our Maker. For He is the Lord voice, harden not your hearts, as in 
our God, and we are the people of the provocation, in the day of temp- 
his pasture and the sheep of his tation in the wilderness, when your 
hand. To-day, if ye will hear his fathers tempted me. — Heb.Wx.^. 
voice harden not your hearts, as in They vexed his Holy Spirit. — 
the provocation, and as in the day hai. Ixiii. 10. 
of temptation in the wilderness: Your fathers resisted the Holy 

when your fathers tempted me, Ghost. — Acts vii. 51. 
proved me, and saw my works. — [The context in the last two 
Ps. xcv. 6-9. shows it refers to the provocation 

in the wilderness.] 

We may fairly conclude that the One whom the 
Psalmist calls upon us to worship is the same One 
whom he says, the Israelites provoked. This One the 
parallel passages assure us was eminently the Eternal 


THE KOCK OP AGES. 


163 


Spirit. I say eminently, for I do not think these and 
other like Scriptures warrant us in excluding thoughts 
of the Father and the Son. While establishing the 
personal Godhead of the Spirit, we must not forget his 
essential unity with the Father and the Son. To those 
who believe this, every simple command “ worship 
God ” embraces the worship of the Holy Spirit ; but 
in the above it was eminently the Spirit. The Spirit 
was the One of the sacred Trinity most prominently 
tempted and grieved by the Israelites, and therefore 
the One most prominently to be supphcated. 

Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the The Holy Ghost said. Separate me 
harvest that He will thrust forth la- Barnabas and Saul for the work. . . 
borers into his harvest. — Mat. ix. So they being sent forth by the Holy 
38. Ghost. — Acts xiii. 2-4. 

Here Christ himself enjoins prayer to him, who sends 
forth ministers. That this is one especial office of the 
Holy Ghost, we learn from the Acts ; and we have, 
therefore, Christ’s warrant for praying to the Spirit. 

Again, bearing in mind that “ the love of ^ ^ 

God is shed abroad in our hearts by the 
Holy Ghost,” this being his peculiar office, I pray 
you to ponder the following prayers : 

“The Lord make you to increase and abound in 
love one toward another and toward all men, as we 
do toward you, to the end he may establish your 
hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our 
Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — 1 
Thess. iii. 13. 

“ The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, 
and into the patient waiting for Christ.” — 2 These, 
iii. 5. 

In both these supplications we have the Father and 


164 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Christ named besides the One to whom the prayer 
is addressed ; may we not be assured that this One 
is especially the blessed Spirit of Love ? 

The book of Revelation seals the testimony. For, 
as we have seen, the bestowal of grace and peace is 
implored equally from the eternal Father and from 
the Seven Spirits which are before his throne. 

Rev. i. 4 6. ^ 

and from Jesus Christ. This is direct sup- 
plication. And lastly, we have in the fourth and 
fifth chapters a view, couched in symbolic but most 
expressive language, of the celestial worship. A 
throne is set in heaven. It is then a question of ab- 
sorbing interest who is the adorable Being, who there 
concentrates around himself this homage of saints and 
angels. So singular and sublime a revelation must 
needs draw the closest regards of every reverent 
Deut.xxix. niind; “for though the secret things belong 
to the Lord our God, the things which are 
revealed belong to us and to our children.” Is then 
the unity of the One there worshipped so simple an 
unity as to preclude any plurality subsisting therein ? 
The throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the 
throne. But is this One alone in infinite solitari- 
ness ? The Lord enable us to keep our foot as we 
draw near to his unutterable glory ! What saith the 
Scripture ? The voice of the Son of Man was only 
^ now silent. “ I overcame, and am set down 

with my Father in his throne:”* and in 
^ ^ strict accordance with this we find, “ Lo ! in 

the midst of the throne f . . . stood a Lamb 


* An evident distinction is here drawn betwixt the throne of Christ, 
which his people were admitted to share, and the throne of the Father, 
the supreme glories of which the Son alone partakes. 

t If any object that, in ch. iv. 6, it is said, “ the living creatures were 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


165 


as it liad been slain : ” and the universal worship of 
heaven is addressed equally “ to him that sate on the 
throne and unto the Lamb for ever.” But is this all ? 
Have we now reached the limit of that revealed ? 
I think not. The question must press on every re- 
flective student, what position do the “ Seven Spirits 
of God” hold amid this tide of celestial adoration? 
Are they among the worshippers, or are they wor- 
shipped ? In the benediction of the first chapter they 
mysteriously intervene betwixt’ the Father and the 
Son, as one of the Blessed Three who are the foun- 
tain of gi’ace and peace. In the third chapter the 
Son of Man describes himself as having the Seven 
Spirits of God. In the fourth chapter they appear as 
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. But 
what when next we read of them ? “In the midst 
of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in 
the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it ^ ^ 

had been 'slain,* having seven horns and 

in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne,” I believe the 
answer is given in the parallel vision of Ezekiel i. 5, 22, 26, where the 
throne is on the firmament, and the firmament rests on the heads of 
the living creatures ; “ so that to one approaching the throne they would 
seem to be around it, though their bodies were under or ‘ in the midst ’ 
of it as a support.” — Barnes. That they did not occupy the throne and 
receive adoration is plain; for (ch. v. 6) the Lamb appears in the midst 
of the living creatures, as well as in the midst of the elders; and v. 8, 
they, with the elders, fall down before him. 

* If one passing mention only had been made of them, as of the seven 
horns, we might have said these shadowed forth perfect knowledge, as 
those perfect power: but the repeated and varied way in which they are 
introduced prevents our resting in this abstract interpretation ; and hence 
the conjunction of the seven horns in this verse seems equivalent to such 
expressions as “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit Luke iv. 14. 
(the same personal Spirit who had descended on him at his Luke hi 22 
baptism, and led him into the wilderness,) into Galilee: ” or, and iv. 1. 

“ God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and ^cts x. 38. 
with power.” 


166 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent 
forth into all the earth.” This implies their closest 
union with the Lamb ; therefore, when He, together 
with the eternal Father, received that wondrous uni- 
versal homage, the sevenfold Spirit of God must have 
received it with him. How beautiful now appears 
the harmony with the opening benedictory prayer ; 

and how appropriate now the threefold che- 
here only and ruble adoratiou, “ Holy, holy, holy. Lord 
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is 
to come.” The vision is symbolic, but it symbolizes 
truth ; and it is most suggestive of the highest ado- 
ration being received on the eternal throne by the 
Father, and by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost. 

Divine worship is, therefore, on the authority of 
Scripture, rendered to the Spirit. I admit that in 
some of the cases the evidence is rather circumstan- 
tial than direct. But this we should have a priori 
expected ; for in the economy of redemption it is the 
office of the Holy Ghost to kindle in us the spirit of 
zech.xii. 10. g^’^ce, and of supplications, to intercede for 
Rom. viii. 15 , and with us; and to enable us, in the 
spirit of adoption, to pray as Jesus taught 
his disciples, “ Our Father which art in heaven.” 


(5) Finally, the comparison of Scripture with Scrip- 
Cf. serieand demonstrates that the Divine Spirit* is 

Jones. Jehovah and God. 

And the Lord said, My Spirit shall The long-suffering of God waited 
not always strive with man. — Gen. in the days of Noah. — 1 Pet. iii. 20. 
vi. 3. 

* This appellative is not modern. Thrice, at least, is the Hebrew 

Spirit of God ” rendered by the LXX. UvEyfia i&elov — Ex. xxxi. 3 ; Job 
xxvii. 3, and xxxiii. 4. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


16T 


It was then the forbearance of God the Spirit with 
which they before the flood contended. 


They vexed his Holy Spirit. . . Jehovah said to Moses, How long 
Where is He that put his Holy Spir- will this people provoke me ? — Num- 
it within him? . . . that led them hers xiv. 11. 

through the deep. . . . The Spirit Jehovah alone did lead him. — 
of Jehovah caused him to rest. — Deut. xxxii. 12. 

Isai. Ixiii. 10-14. 


Compare also the parallel passages (p. 162). Here 
we learn that the One provoked was the Holy Spirit, 
and was Jehovah. Therefore the Spirit is Jehovah. 

The Spirit of the Lord spake by The God of Israel said, and the 
me ; and his word was in my tongue. Rock of Israel spake to me. — ib. 

— 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. v. 3. 

Therefore, unless you admit that there were three, 
or at least two. Divine speakers who inspired David, 
the Spirit of Jehovah is the God and the Rock of 
Israel. 

Well spake the Holy Ghost by The Lord God of Israel .... 
Esaias the prophet. — Acts xxviii. spake by the mouth of his holy 
25. prophets, which have been since 

the world began. — Luke i. 68-70. 

Holy men of God spake as they All Scripture is given by inspira- 
were moved by the Holy Ghost. — 2 tion of God. — 2 Tim. iii. 16. 

Pet. i. 21. 

The Spirit, therefore, is God, yea, the Lord God of 
Israel. I append a few other passages, (selected from 
many,) the conclusion from which is similarly self- 
evident. 

That which is born of the Spirit That which is born of God (rd 
(rd yeyevviJiJtivov ek tov UvEVfiaTog) . yeyevvTjfi^vov Ik tov Qeov). — 1 John 

— Johniu.^. V. 4. 


168 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Christ wrought by me, through Jehovah, . . . the Lord of lords 
mighty signs and wonders by the ... the God of gods, . . . alone 
power of the Holy Ghost. — Rom. doeth great wonders. — Ps. cxxxvi. 
XV. 19. 1-4. 


The Comforter (6 HapAKTcriTot;) , 
which is the Holy Ghost. — John 
xiv. 26. 

Walking . . in the comfort of the 
Holy Ghost. — Acts ix. 31. 

Why hath Satan filled thine heart 
to lie to the Holy Ghost V — Acts v. 3. 

How is it that ye have agreed to 
tempt the Spirit of the Lord? — 
Acts V. 9. 


• I, even I, am He that comfort- 
eth (6 7rapaKa?MV — LXX.) you. — 
Isai. li. 12. 

The God of all comfort, who com- 
forteth us. — 2 Cor. i. 3-4. 

Thou hast not lied unto men, but 
unto God. — ib. v. 4. 

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord 
thy God. — Mat. iv. 7. 


Your body is the temple of the Ye are the temple of the living 
Hoi}- Ghost. — 1 Cor. vi. 19. God : as God hath said, I will dwell 

The Spirit of God dwelleth in in them. — 2 Cor. vi. 16. 
you. — 1 Cor. iii. 16. 

These passages might be greatly multiplied ; but 
from this comparison, observing the way in which the 
names and offices of God and of the Holy Spirit are 
interchanged, we conclude that this same Eternal Spirit 
is Jehovah, the God of Israel, the Lord God, the 
Lord of Lords, the God of Gods, the living God, 
the Divine being who quickens and comforts — in one 
word. He is God.* And, accordingly, St. Paul affirms. 


* I might here add two remarks: 

(1) The Godhead of Christ being proved, the very fact of the Holy 
Spirit anointing this infinite Saviour for all the work of redemption 
proves his own Divine infinitude; — for who but God could empower 
God? 

(2) As in the Old Testament we find Christ as the Angel of God’s pres- 

ence saying, “ I am the God of thy father, — I will send 
E^. iii. 3, 6, M claiming supreme authority : and as from 

thence we may securely infer the Deity of this glorious 
leader, so in the New Testament, when we find the Spirit 
Acts X. 19,20. said to Peter, “Arise, go, for I have sent thee,” thus in his 
own right, setting aside the ceremonial law, we may safely 
argue this is a Divine person, who, in the absence of the Son of God, 
according to his promise, acts in his place and governs his church. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


169 


“ Now the Lord (Kvpwf) is that Spirit.” He 2 cor. m. 17. 
had just said, “ When it (or rather he) shall I 6 . 

turn to the Lord,” (Kvpiov) referring to Moses entering 
the presence of Jehovah, “ the vail shall he taken 
away.” At all events, the word Lord, as used in 
V. 16, designates the Most High ; and the apostle con- 
tinuing without intermission says, “ But the Lord is 
the Spirit : ” and we have in this plain, unambiguous 
affirmation a crowning and convincing argument that 
the Holy Ghost is one with the Father and the Son, — 
very and Eternal God. 

If any object that He is said to he sent by the Father 
and the Son, and that this mission implies inferiority, 
we answer that, even among men, the being sent is 
by no means always a mark of subordination. “ The 
members of a senate consult together relative to some 
negotiation, in executing which great wisdom, judg- 
ment, and experience are required. It is resolved to 
send one of their number. Is it any mark of inferior- 
ity to be selected and sent on such a service ? And 
the mission of the Comforter is spoken of regarding the 
office He has undertaken in the economy of grace, — 
the work of sanctifying the elect people of God, — 
a work which none less than God can effect, and 
the glorious accomplishment of which will redound 
to his praise through the countless ages of 
eternity.” 

If, again, any ask why the ambiguity inseparable 
from the name Spirit of Crod^ when compared with the 
phrase spirit of a man — an ambiguity which, unless 
explained, would have tended to conceal his personality 
— was permitted ? I would suggest that his name is 
no arbitrary choice ; that it is the only one which 
8 


170 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


would reveal to us the distinctive character of this holy 
Being, as the name the Son could alone describe the 
Eternal Word : and that the very similarity of desig- 
nation may be needful to express his fellowship with 
us, his spiritual indwelling, and the high communion 
carried on, while the Spirit itself bears witness 
with our spirit that we are the children of God. 
This similarity testifies to us our union with the Divine 
Comforter who renews us, as our common humanity 
testifies our union with the Divine Saviour who re- 
deemed us. 

And if once more it is asked why He is not more 
prominently set forth in Scripture as the object of ado- 
ration, besides the answer given above, there seems in 
this, if I may venture so to express myself, a principle 
of Divine equipoise in the parts sustained in our salva- 
tion, by the coequal and coeternal Three. The love 
of the Father, loving us so that He gave his Son to re- 
deem and his Spirit to sanctify us, shines preeminent : 
it bathes the sacred page with light, and commands our 
homage, and compels our love. The grace of the Lord 
Jesus, for us incarnate, for us crucified, for us inter- 
ceding, absorbs every thought, and attracts every affec- 
tion : and a large portion of Scripture is taken up with 
setting forth the eternal Godhead of Emmanuel, and 
requiring us to regard him with equal love and with 
equal confidence. Once more, a third is revealed, the 
Divine Comforter : the glories of his Person are beyond 
doubt affirmed, but they are only rarely disclosed in full 
view ; his worship is enjoined, but it is comparatively 
withdrawn from observation : when, however, we look 
into the subjective work carried on by him, there is an 
amplitude and plenitude of evidence from Holy Writ 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


171 


which entirely compensates any seclusion of his visible 
majesty. The variety of his Divine operations in us 
as far exceeds in glory, as the brightness of his pres- 
ence is concealed. The ministration of the Spirit is as 
mighty, as his voice is mysteriously still. 

But here, even when we would feel our way with 
the utmost reverence, how soon are we beyond our 
depth : the waters are risen, waters to swim in, 

• 1 1 1 n^i 1 xlvii. 6 . 

a river that cannot be passed over. 1 hanks 
be to God, the necessary truth is clear as the light : — 
that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the 
Son ; that such personal properties are assigned to him 
as demonstrate intelligent personahty ; that all Divine 
attributes, such as self-existence from eternity, omni- 
presence, infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, absolute 
freedom and goodness, creative providential and spirit- 
ual power — attributes any one of which would prove 
his Godhead — are assigned to him ; that He is asso- 
ciated in Divine offices with the Father and the Son ; 
that He with them is worshipped and glorified ; that 
He is Jehovah and God: — these things are written, as 
with a sunbeam, in the Scriptures of truth. 

But here I would remind myself and my readers that 
no evidence, however conclusive, can insure a saving 
belief in the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. The under- 
standing may be convinced, while the heart may rebel. 
For the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, “ I will pray 
the Father ; and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit 
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, be- jo^n xiv. i6, 
cause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” 

And the apostle Paul, while in conscious integrity he 
declares, ‘‘We speak the things freely given to us of 


172 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


God, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, 
1 Cor. ii. 12 which the Holy Ghost teacheth, compar- 
ing spiritual things with spiritual : ” seems to 
chasten his hopes with the humbling recollection, “ the 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, neither can he know them, for they are 
spiritually discerned.” And therefore rather, 
seeing we have an High Priest who is touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, let us kneel together at the 
throne of grace, and plead in prayer his own royal 
promise, “ If ye being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 

Luke xi. 13. , i i „ i n • i r. 

that ask him, — that we all with open face 
beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, may be 
changed into the same image from glory to 

2Cor. m. 18. , ° ® 

glory, as by the Lord the Spirit. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


173 


CHAPTER VII. 

And now I must seek to draw this treatise, which 
has extended far beyond the limits I designed, to a 
conclusion. I would therefore state my last proposition 
in these words : — 

That Scripture in the Old and in the New Testament 
alike^ assures us that in the trustful knowledge of One 
God^ — the Father^ the Son^ and the Holy Ghost, — is 
the spiritual life of man now and for ever. 

The Lord grant that we may continue to bring to 
the study of his word, that humble spirit which prays — 
“ That which I see not, teach Thou me I ” Job xxxiv. 32. 

(1) To one who receives with meekness the en- 
grafted word which is able to save our souls, the Scrip- 
tures already adduced prove beyond contradiction that 
as the Father is God, so is Jesus Christ God, and so 
the Holy Spirit is God. This truth, however, must be 
combined with another, which is revealed with equal 
clearness and enforced with equal solemnity : — “I am 
Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no 
God beside me.” The combination of these 
truths establishes the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, for 
“these Three must together subsist in one infinite 
Divine essence, called Jehovah or God ; and as this 
essence must be indivisible, each of them must possess 


1T4 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


not a part or portion of it, but the whole fulness or 
perfection of the essential Godhead forming, in an 
unity of nature. One Eternal Jehovah, and therefore 
revealed by a plural noun* as the Jehovah Elohim, 

* The reader will observe throughout this treatise, that I have given no 
prominence to the argument derivable from the plural form of Elohim, 
and to the yet more suggestive language used by God, “ Let 
Gen. i. 26. us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and again, 

Isai. vi. 8. “Who will go for us? ” But I should be doing injustice to my 

own convictions if I did not state, that I believed this language was in- 
tended to foster when kindled, and to awaken when dormant, the per- 
suasion that there subsisted a mysterious plurality in the essential unity 
of Jehovah. Thus far, I think the following extracts from Dr. P. Smith’s 
essay abundantly bear me out : — 

“ The most usual appellation of the Deity in the original Scriptures of 
the Old Testament is Elohim, which is constantly translated ‘ God ; ’ but 
it is the regular plural of Eloah, which also occurs, though much less 
frequently than in the plural form, and is always translated in the same 
manner. 

“This plural appellative is generally put in agreement with singular 
verbs, pronouns, and adjectives, as in Gen. i. 1, Elohim created; — creavit 
Dii ; — les Dieux crea. This is the ordinary construction through the 
whole Hebrew Bible. 

“ But sometimes the apposition is made with verbs, pronouns, and ad- 
jectives, in the plural number likewise, and sometimes singulars and plu- 
rals are put together in the same agreement: as Gen. xx. 13, God (plural) 
caused me to wander — vagari me fecemint Dii ; — les Dieux m'ont fait 
egarer. Deut. v. 26, heard the voice of the living God (plural) — audivit 
vocem Deorum Viventium ; — des Dieux vivans, &c. 

“ To these may be added the similar expressions, though without the 
word Elohim: — 

“Psalm cxlix. 2, Israel shall rejoice in his Maker (plural) — in Creatori- 
bus suis ; — de ses Oreateurs. 

“Isaiah liv. 5, For thy Creator (plural) is thy husband (plixral). 

“ Eccles. xii. 1, Remember thy Creator (plural). 

“ The fact which principally requires our attention, is the constant use 
of Elohim, to designate the one and only God. It is not a little remark- 
able that, in the sacred books of a people who were separated from all 
other nations for this express object, that they should bear a public and 
continual protest against polytheism, the ordinary name and style of the 
only living and true God should' be in a plural form. Did some strange 
and insuperable necessity lie in the way ? Was the language so poor that 
it could furnish no other term ? Or, if so, could not the wisdom of inspira- 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


175 


which comprehends these Tliree ; but with this solemn 
qualification, that the Jehovah Elohim is in truth but 
one Jehovah, a Triune God, Father, Son, and Adapted from 
Holy Ghost.” pp.'dMT. 

This supreme mystery must transcend all the powers 
of human thought ; and the question must recur again 
and again, what saith the Scripture ? Our imagina- 
tions must be counted as the small dust of the balance. 
Thus, do you conceive that the very names “ the Fa- 
ther, the Son ” imply a certain point in duration beyond 
which the Father inhabited eternity alone? Your con- 
ception cannot countervail the assertion of Scripture, 
that the goings-forth of the Saviour have been from 
everlasting ; or the words of Christ himself, adopting the 
formula which declares the Divine self-existence from 
eternity to eternity, “ I am the first and the last.”* 


tion have suggested a new appellative, and for ever abolish the hazardous 
word ? None of these reasons existed. The language was rich and copi- 
ous. Besides ‘ that glorious and fearful name, Jehovah,’ the appropri- 
ated and unique style of the true God, there was the singular form ‘ Eloah ’ 
of the very word in question. 

“ ‘ Hear 0 Israel, Jehovah, our Elohim, one Jehovah? ’ This Deut. vi. 4. 
sentence was proclaimed as a kind of oracular effalum^ — a 
solemn and authoritative principle to the Israelites. Had it been intended 
to assert such a unity in the Divine nature, as is absolutely solitary, and 
exclusive of every modification of plurality, would not the expression of 
necessity have been this, ‘ Hear 0 Israel, Jehovah, our Elohim, one 
Eloah? ’ But as the words actually stand, they appear to be in the most 
definite and expressive manner designed to convey the idea, that, rwtunth- 
standing a real plurality intimated in the form Elohim, Jehovah is still 

ONE.” 

* The illustration, before adduced, of the sun, its beams of light, and 
its vital heat, may offer some faint resemblance of this great mystery: for 
the beams of light are generated by the central orb ; and yet the sun could 
not have existed, so far as we know, for a moment without emitting its 
radiance, nor the radiance have existed without diffusing its warmth: so 
that “ one is not before another, but only in order and relation Beveridge on 
to one another.” But no creature can adequately image forth *• 
the Creator, who asks “To whom then will ye liken God, or ^ 
what likeness will ye compare unto him? ” 


176 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Again, do you imagine that the name of him who 
is alone Jehovah, cannot comprehend a Trinity in 
Unity ? Your imagination is as nothing in contra- 
diction of the words of Christ revealing the one Divine 

o 

name, as “ the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost.” Do you asseverate the impossi- 
bility of three subsistences in one eternal essence ? 

Remember, I pray you, the words, “ Canst 
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? ” 
What do we know of the essence of created things ? 
The pure white light seems indissolubly one ; an ' un- 
scientific man would, without hesitation, pronounce it 
uniform, and would utterly deny any plurality subsist- 
ing in its transparent simplicity. The colors of the 
rainbow seem evidently manifold ; and the same man 
might refuse to credit their unity. Science stoops to 
analyze light ; and we are told that — 

The prismatic spectrum consists in reality of three spectra of nearly 
equal length, each of uniform color, superposed one upon another; and 
that the colors which the actual spectrum exhibit arise from the mixture 
of the unifonn colors of these three spectra superposed. The colors of 
these three elementary spectra, according to Sir David Brewster, are red, 
yellow, and blue. He shows that by a combination of these three, not 
only all the colors exhibited in the prismatic spectrum may be repro- 
Ijardncr’s duced, but their combination also produces white light. He 
Museum, contends, therefore, that the white light of the sun consists, 
vol. vii. p. 78. Qf seven, but of three constituent lights. 

The unlearned man then, in his incredulity, would 
have denied an estabhshed fact. The unity of that 
pure white light was not so simple as he affirmed. 
More constituents than one subsist in its ethereal es- 
sence. But has science now fathomed the mysteries of 
light ? So far fi:om it, we read — 

Light is now proved to consist in the waves of a subtile and elastic 
ether, which pervades all space and serves to communicate every impulse, 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


177 


from one part of the universe to another, with a speed almost inconceiv- 
able. ... In this luminous ether, matter seems to emulate the subtilty 
of thought. Invisible, and yet the only means by which all things are 
made visible; impalpable, and yet nourishing all material objects into life 
and beauty; so elastic, that when touched at one point, swift glances of 
light tremble through the universe; and still so subtile that the celestial 
bodies traverse its depths freely, and even the most vaporous comet 
scarcely exhibits a sensible retardation in its course; — there is some- 
thing in the very nature of this medium which seems to baffle the powers 
of human science, and to say to the pride of human intellect, “ Hitherto 
.shalt thou come, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be 
stayed.” Here, indeed, the most brilliant and profound analysts have 
continually to guess their way when they would trace out a few of the 
simplest laws resulting from the existence of such an ether, and unfold 
their application to the various phenomena of reflected and refracted 
light. It is a great deep of mystery. Science grows dizzy on its verge 
when it strives to explore the nature of this subtile, immense, Birks’s 
imponderable ocean, which bathes all worlds in light, and 
itself remains, by its own nature, invisible for ever. pp. 99 - 106 . 

Is such the modest confession of truth after all the 
triumphs of human wisdom ? Is man only wading, 
with tremulous footstep, into the shallow waters of that 
unfathomable sea called into existence by the fiat of 
God, when He said, “ Let there he light, and there was 
light ? ” Are we so soon out of our depth in seeking 
to understand one of his works ? How much rather 
may we expect to be humbled as we meditate, and to 
be baffled if we think we can comprehend, the glorious 
Creator himself? Is light a mystery? How much 
rather He who dwelleth in the light that no man can 
approach unto ! We know him only as He reveals 
himself. 

This self-revelation involves a yet greater self-con- 
cealment. There will be the manifestation of God in 
the voluntary condescension of his love : and there will 

be the necessary seclusion within the clouds of his 

8 * 


178 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Ps. cxi. 2. 


Job xxvi. 14. 


imapproacliable glory. When a finite being seeks to 
understand anything of the Infinite, it must always be 
so. There will be the fragment of truth which the 
student has made and is making his own, and the illim- 
itable expanse beneath, above, and beyond him. Thus 
in the field of nature we read, “ The works of the 
Lord are great, sought out of all them that 
have pleasure therein.” Here is our knowl- 
edge. But “ No man,” says Solomon, “ can find out 
^ ... the work that God maketh from the begin- 
ning to the end.” There is the fimit of our 
knowledge. We are invited to consider his heavens, 
to trace his footprints, and to regard the operations of 
his hands. And yet after all, “ Lo ! these are parts of 
his ways ; how, faint a whisper is heard of 
him ! the thunder of his power who can un- 
derstand ? ” So, in the majestic course of his patient 
providence we adoringly acknowledge, “ Just 

Rev.xv.3. ^ ® . 

and true are thy ways, thou King of saints : 
and yet we must confess, “ Thy way is in the sea, and 
Ps ixxTii 19 ^ great waters, and thy foot>- 

steps are not known.” 

Humble students are treading an upland path. Their 
horizon widens every step they take. The angels of 
light, standing on a higher eminence, see farther than 
they. StiU there must be a boundary line which limits 
angelic intuition : and whatever lies beyond that line 
must be a mystery to them, or, if made known to them, 
made known by revelation. We rebuke the want of 
modesty in the unlearned peasant, who argues fi’om his 
ignorance against the declarations of science : surely 
those blessed spirits would rebuke us, if we, through 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


179 


preconceived notions of onr own, refused to credit the 
simple revelations of God regarding his own mysterious 
Being. 

He reveals himself by his names, his attributes, and 
his acts. And, therefore, if combined with assertions 
that God is one, we find Three revealed in Scripture to 
whom the same names, attributes, and acts are ascribed, 
the same so far as a personal distinction allows ; if we 
look vainly for any fourth Divine one, or any intima- 
tion of more than three ; if we connect with this the 
intimate and necessary union affirmed to exist betwixt 
the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, as when the 
Lord Jesus says, “ I and my Father are one,” and 
when St. Paul says, “ The Spirit searches the depths of 
God;” if, then, we find that every Christian is baptized 
into one Name, — the Name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost — we are led swiftly and 
irresistibly up to the doctrine (call it by what name you 
will) of the Trinity in Unity. 

(2) Hence, at the risk of apparent repetition, I shall 
bring together again some few Bible testimonies to the 
Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; 
combining them in one view ; and adding a further 
declaration fi’om Scripture of our sole dependance on 
the alone Jehovah ; so that you may see at a glance, 
we are compelled by the Christian verity, “ to acknowl- 
edge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in 
the power of the Divine Majesty to worship Sunday, 
the Unity.” 


180 


THE ROOK OF AGES. 


1 . 

The Father^ the Son^ and the Holy Grhost are eternal, 

1. I am the first, and I am the last. — Isai. xliv. 6. 

The everlasting (aluviov) God. — Rom. xvi. 26. 

2. I am the first and the last. — Rev. i. 17. Whose 

goings forth have been fi’om of old, from ever- 
lasting (aTT* apxvC H Vfiepuv aluvoc — LXX.) Micah 

V. 2. 

3. The eternal [alaviov) Spirit. — Heb. ix. 14. 

The One Eternal is our trust. The eternal God is 
thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. — 
Deut. xxxiii. 27. 


n. 

Th^ Father., the Son, and the Holy Grhost created all 
things. 

1. One God, the Father, of whom are all things. — 

1 Cor. viii. 6. The Lord ... it is He that hath 
made us. — Ps. c. 3. 

2. By him (the Word) were all things made. — 

John i. 3. All things were created by him, 
&c. — Col. i. 16. 

3. Who hath measured, &c. — who hath directed the 

Spirit of the Lord. — Isai. xl. 13. The Spirit 
of God hath made me. — Job xxxiii. 4. 

The One Almighty is our trust. Commit the keep- 
ing of your souls to him as unto a faithful Creator. — 1 
Pet. iv. 19. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


181 


III. 

The Father^ the Son^ and the Soly Ghost are omni-^ 
present. 

1. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? — 

Jer. xxiii. 24. 

2. Lo, I am with you alway. — Mat. xxviii. 20. 

3. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? — Ps. 

cxxxix. 7. 

The One omnipresent God is our trust. He is not 
far from every one of us, for in him we live and move, 
and have our being. — Acts xvii. 27, 28. 


IV. 

The Father^ the Son, and the Soly Ghost are income 
prehensihle and omniscient. 

1. No one knoweth the Father save the Son. — 

Mat. xi. 27. Known unto God are all his 
works, &c. — Acts xv. 18. 

2. No one knoweth the Son save the Father. — 

Mat. xi. 27. Lord, thou knowest all things. — 
John xxi. 17. 

3. Who being his counsellor hath taught him? — 

Isai. xl. 13. The Spirit searcheth all things. — 
1 Cor. ii. 10. 

We worship the One all-seeing God. All things are 
naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we 
have to do. — Heb. iv. 13. 


182 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


V. 

The Father^ the Son^ and the Holy Grhost are true, 
holy, and good. 

1. He that sent me is true. — John vii. 28. Holy 

{ay lb) Father. Righteous (dkate) Father. — John 
xvii. 11, 25. The Lord is good. — Ps. xxxiv. 8. 

2. I am . . . the truth. — John xiv. 6. The holy 

One and the just {rhv aytov Kal rbv dUaiov ), — Acts 
iii. 14. The good Shepherd. — John x. 11. 

3. The Spirit is truth. — 1 John v. 6. The Spirit, 

the holy one. — John xiv. 26. Thy Spirit is 
good. — Ps. cxliii. 10. 

We adore the One Lord of infinite goodness. Who 
shall not fear thee and magnify thy name, for thou only 
art holy. — Rev. xv. 4. 

VI. 

The Fath^, the Son, and the Holy Orhost have each a 
self-regulating will. 

1. Him that worketh all things after the counsel of 

his own will {r^vjSovXrjvTOv T&e7iTi/iaTO^). Eph. i. 11. 

2. The Son wills {(^ovXrjrai) to reveal him. — Mat. xi. 

27. Father I will — John xvii. 24. 

3. Dividing to every one severally as He wills 

{(3ov?[£Tac). 1 Cor. xii. 11. 

We rest on the will of him who alone is Jehovah. The 
will of the Lord he done. — Acts xxi. 14. 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


183 


VII. 

The Father^ the Son, and the Holy G-host are the 
fountain of life. 

1. With thee is the fountain of life. — Ps. xxxvi. 9. 

God hath quickened us. — Eph. ii. 4, 5. 

2. In him (the Word) was life. — John i. 4. The 

Son quickeneth whom He will. — John v. 

21 . 

3. The Spirit is life. — Rom. viii. 10. Bom of the 

Spirit. — John hi. 8. 

We depend on one life-giving God. Love the Lord 
thy God, . . . cleave unto him, ... for He is thy life. 
Deut. XXX. 20. 


The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost strengthen, 
comfort, and sanctify us. 

1. Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 

Ps. cxxxviu. 3. I will comfort you. — Isai. 
Ixvi. 13. — Sanctified by God the Father. — 
Jude 1. 

2. I can do all things through Christ which strength- 

eneth me. — Phil. iv. 13. If any consolation 
in Christ. — Phil. u. 1. Sanctified in Christ 
Jesus. — 1 Cor. i. 2. 

3. Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner 

man. — Eph. iii. 16. The Comforter, the Holy 
Ghost. — John xiv. 26. Being sanctified by 
the Holy Ghost. — Rom. xv. 16. 


184 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


We trust in One Orod for spiritual power. My God, 
my strength, in whom I will trust. — Ps. xviii. 2. 


IX. 

The Father., the Son, and the Holy Ghost fill the soul 
with Divine love, 

1. Every one that loveth him that begat. — 1 John 

V. 1. If any man love the world, the love of 

the Father is not in him. — 1 John ii. 15. 

2. The love of Christ constraineth us. — 2 Cor. v. 

14. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ. 

— 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 

3. I beseech you for the love of the Spirit. — 

Rom. XV. 30. Your love in the Spirit. — Col. 

i. 8. 

The love of the One living and true God characterizes 
idle saint. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart. — Deut. vi. 5. 


X. 

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost gave the 
Divine law. 

1. The law of the Lord is perfect. — Ps. xix. 7. 

The word of our God. — Is. xl. 8. Thus saith 
the Lord God. — Eze. ii. 4. 

2. The law of Christ. — Gal. vi. 2. The word of 

Christ. Col. hi. 16. These things saith the 
Son of God. — Rev. ii. 18. 

3. The law of the Spirit of life. — Rom. vhi. 2. 

Holy men spake as they were moved by the 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


185 


Holy Ghost. 2 Pet. i. 21. The Holy Ghost 
said. — Acts xiii. 2. 

The word of One Legislator is the heliever’^s rule. 
There is One lawgiver who is able to save. — James 
iv. 12. 


XI. 

The Father^ the Son, and the Holy Qhost dwell in the 
hearts of believers, 

1. I will dwell in them. — 2 Cor. vi. 16. God is in 

you of a truth. — 1 Cor. xiv. 25. Our fellow- 
ship is with the Father. — 1 John i. 3. 

2. Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. — 

Eph. iii. 17. Christ in you, the hope of glory. 
— Col. i. 27. Our fellowship . . . with his 
Son Jesus Christ. — 1 John i. 3. 

3. The Spirit dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 

— John xiv. 17. The communion of the Holy 
Ghost. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 

The contrite heart receives One Divine guest. Thus 
saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, I 
dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble heart. 
— Isai. Ivii. 15. 


xn. 

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Gdiost are, each by 
himself, the supreme Jehovah and Grod, 

1. I am Jehovah, thy God. — Ex. xx. 2. Thou, 
Lord, art most High for evermore. — Ps. xcii. 8. 


186 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


2. Jehovah our God. — Isai. xl. 3, with Mat. iii. 3, 

(see pp. 98 - 110.) The Highest. — Luke i. 

76, with Mat. xi. 10. 

3. Jehovah God. — Eze. viii. 1, 3, (see pp. 166 - 

169.) The Highest. — Luke i. 35. 

The One supreme Lord G-od is our God for ever and 
ever. Jehovah, our Elohim, One Jehovah. — Deut. vi. 4. 

From this brief comparison which might be elabo- 
rated at far greater length, (if the reader asks for fur- 
ther proof of any statement, I earnestly entreat him to 
refer back to the more detailed exposition,) Scripture 
assures us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
have the same Divine attributes^ concur with a mind, 
and will, and heart personally independent, but uni- 
tedly harmonious in the same Divine acts., and are ad- 
dressed by the same Divine names. And fur- 

Cf. Jones. Til • T 1 

ther, we learn that our trust is not dispersed 
or confused by this coequal Godhead of the Sacred 
Three : but that (a way of access being opened in the 
Gospel through the revelation of the Father in Christ 
by the Spirit) we rest on, we worship, and we love 
One God. Thus, these Three are One: or, in the 
language of the first Article of the Church of Eng- 
land — 

“ There is but One living and true God, everlasting ; 
without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite power, 
wisdom, and goodness ; the Maker and Preserver of 
all things, both visible and invisible. And in Unity of 
this Godhead, there be Three persons of one substance, 
power, and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost.” 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


187 


(3) Are you tempted to say, “ such a brief article 
as this enunciated by Christ himself, and recorded by 
the apostles, would have settled every controversy for 
ever : why, oh why, was it not contained in Scrip- 
ture ? ” Haply, Elihu might quell the rising suspicion, 
“ Behold in this thou art not just. I will answer thee, 
that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive 
against him ? for He giveth not account of any of his 
•matters. — For God speaketh once, yea twice, 
but man perceiveth it not.” But it is by no 
means certain that such an article would have settled 
every doubt. It would have been handed down from 
age to age : many manuscripts must needs be collated : 
possibly some obscure variation might be discovered. 
But even if the text were as impregnable as the open- 
ing of St. John’s Gospel, I doubt whether it would 
have convinced such minds as remain unconvinced of 
the Godhead of Christ, after weighing those transpar- 
ent declarations. Saving faith is the gift of ^ g 
God. Granting, however, that it had mate- 
rially shortened the path by which sincere inquirers 
attain the true faith (for Scripture assures us that none, 
who heartily seek the Lord, stop short of Jesus Christ), 
what would have been its effect on the church at large ? 
Pennit me here to quote some admirable remarks from 
“ Cautions for the Times.” 

There is another reason against the providing in Scripture of a regular 
systematic statement of Christian doctrines. Supposing such a summary 
of Gospel truths had been drawn up, and could have been contrived with 
such exquisite skill as to be sufficient and well adapted for all, of every 
age and country, what would have been the probable result? It would 
have commanded the unhesitating assent of all Christians who would, 
with deep veneration, have stored up the very words of it in their mem- 
ory, without any need of laboriously searching the rest of the Scriptures, 
to ascertain its agreement with them; which is what we do (at least, are 


188 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


evidently called on to do) with a human exposition of the faith : and the 
absence of this labor, together with the tranquil security as to the correct- 
ness of their belief, which would have been thus generated, would have 
ended in a careless and contented apathy. There would have been . . • 
no call for vigilant attention in the investigation of truth — none of that 
effort of mind which is now requisite, in comparing one passage with 
another, and collecting instruction from the scattered, oblique, and inci- 
dental references to various doctrines in the existing Scriptures ; and in 
consequence none of that excitement of the best feelings, and that im- 
provement of the heart, which are the natural and, doubtless, the designed 
result of an humble, diligent, and sincere study of the Christian Scrip- 
tures. 

In fact all study, properly so called, of the rest of Scripture — all lively 
interest in its perusal — would have nearly been superseded by such an 
inspired compendium of doctrine; to which alone, as by far the most con- 
venient for that purpose, habitual reference would have been made in any 
question that might arise. Both would have been regarded indeed as of 
Divine authority: but the compendium as the fused and purified metal; 
the other as the mine containing the crude ore. And the compendium 
itself being not like the existing Scriptures, that from which the faith is to 
be learned but the very thing to be learned, would have come to be regarded 
by most with an indolent, unthinking veneration, which would have exer- 
cised little or no influence on the character. Their orthodoxy would have 
been as it were petrified ; like the bodies of those animals we read of in- 
crusted in the ice of the polar regions — firm fixed, indeed, and presei'ved 
unchangeable ; but cold, motionless, lifeless. It is only when our energies 
are roused, and our faculties exercised, and our attention kept awake by 
an ardent pursuit of truth and anxious watchfulness against error — when, 
in short, we feel ourselves to be doing something towards acquiring, or re- 
taining, or improving our knowledge — it is then only that that knowledge 
makes the requisite practical impression on the heart and on the conduct. 

To the Church then, has her all-wise Founder left the office of teaching 

— to the Scriptures, that of proving the Christian doctrine : to the Scrip- 
tures, He has left the delineation of Christian principles — to each Church, 
the application of those principles, in their Symbols or Articles of religion 

— in their forms of worship — and in their Ecclesiastical regulations. — 
pp. 443, 444. 

I would only add that the exceeding value of such 
Art symbols or creeds, as may he proved hy most 

certain warrants of holy Scripture^ appears 
from the daily shifting opinions of Unitarian congre- 
gations on those articles of faith which it is of the last 
importance should be settled and stable. This may 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


189 


teach us that articles of faith received, because demon- 
strable by Scripture, are beyond all price ; while, prob- 
ably, if themselves incorporated in Holy Writ, seeing 
how many nominal Christians, professors of an ortho- 
dox creed, have too plainly the form without the power 
of godliness, they would have only stereotyped more 
hopelessly the apathy of those who have a name to 
live and are dead. 

How beautiful is the analogy here between the word 
of God and the natural creation. Had we been told 
that the earth was to be so arranged that eight hundred 
millions of human beings could live thereon, should we 
not, in thought, have done away with the vast unpro- 
ductive forests, the superfluous mountains, the exorbi- 
tant ocean, and have divided it into so many plots for 
agriculture, like the veriest pauper fleld? This was 
not God’s way. The woods, and hills, and seas min- 
ister to the clouds, and the clouds drop fatness on the 
fertile field and the luxurious plain ; and thus He opens 
his hand and supplies all things living with plenteous- 
ness. So it is with the Scriptures of truth. We should, 
perhaps, have expected definitions, and articles, and for- 
mularies, and canons, and creeds. This was not God’s 
method. There is the incident of touching simplicity, 
the solemn majesty of law, the flame of patriotic zeal, 
the heart-experience which speaks to our heart, the 
grandest poetry, the most magnificent songs of praise, 
the rapid changes on the prophetic harp, the inimitable 
story of redeeming love, the calm deductions of logical 
argument, the echo of angelic joy, the unbarring of the 
gates of glory, and the reflection of the light of eter- 
nity. And yet, amid all these manifold combinations, 
the simple rule of our faith in the One living and 


190 


THE EOCK OF AGES. 


true God — Father, Son, and Spirit, the source of crea- 
tion, redemption, and sanctification, — is marked out 
with a precision that he who runs may read. 

But, do you ask, is it needful for every believer to 
pass through such a long process of proof as even this 
httle treatise sets forth? Assuredly not. The Bible 
is eminently the poor man’s book. These things are 
Mat. V. 25, hidden from the wise and prudent, and re- 
andxvm. 3. yg^led unto habes. And to such a child- 
like mind a very few simple truths generally carry con- 
viction, and with conviction life and peace. “ I am 
God, and beside me there is no Saviour.” “ Behold 
the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the 
world.” “ I will send the Comforter to you.” His 
Father, his Redeemer, his Sanctifier, are equally indis- 
pensable to him : and he knows that he was baptized 
into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost. He needs no more. Without any labored 
syllogisms, he believes these Three are One. The 
truth finds him. He does not expect to fathom the 
mystery : but his whole heart embraces that which 
satisfies his whole necessity. 

If, however, doubts and suspicions assail thesQ first 
principles when implanted, or keep back an inquirer 
from behoving them, then the word of God, reverently 
consulted, affords a complete answer to every, what I 
may call, rational objection. The armory supplies a 
weapon for every encounter. We are ready 

IPet.iii. 15. ^ 1 T 

> to give every man a reason ot the hope that 

is in us. Therefore, if held back by these doubts from 
faith in Christ, you must give ‘yourself, heart and soul, 
to this momentous inquiry ; you must shake off that 
deadly indifference which would leave this question un- 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


191 


decided you must watch and pray ; and then be 
assm'ed the promise shall never fail. — “I know the 
thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, 
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an 
expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye 
shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto 
you ; and ye shall seek me and find me when xxix. ii- 
ye shall search for me with all your heart.” 

Mortal life, stretching forth into immortality, is 
to each man like a precious cabinet stored with 
priceless jewels. But the cabinet is locked, and to 
those without Christ the key is wanting. The Gos- 
pel is that key. It is proffered to all. How many, 
alas, carelessly thrust it aside ! But some, you may 
think with a modest caution, refuse to make the trial, 
lest haply they should hamper the lock, until they have 
been assured by a careful sifting of documents, by a 
comparing of outlines, of the hidden wards with the 
keyi and by other infallible proofs, that the key in 
question was the one made and designed for the cab- 
inet. This investigation they pursue with untiring 
assiduity, until, satisfied of the credibility of the evi- 
dence adduced, they try the bolt with a trembling 
hand*; it yields to the touch and the cabinet is their 
own ; they are rich for ever. Many others, however, 
have more trustfulness, and less fearfulness. They 
feel their poverty ; they believe the offer is to be re- 
lied on ; they know that many of their neighbors have 
found it so ; and without further delay they also try 
the lock. It yields, and the cabinet is theirs. You 
can never argue them out of their persuasion that the 
key they hold in their hands is the key of the cabinet. 
No other unlocks it ; and this does. That is enough 


192 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


for them. They may not have so intelligent a knowl- 
edge of the way in which that elaborate key turns 
back one secret spring after another ; that knowledge, 
whenever acquired, belongs to the patient painstaking 
investigator. But both alike possess the jewels. 

So is it with the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; it exactly 
fits the intricate wards of the human heart. It unlocks 
the inestimable treasures of human life. He that uses 
it is rich indeed ; rich towards God ; rich for eternity. 
Whether he has been led to faith in Christ through 
long and painful inquiries, as may be the case especially 
with those who have much time for thought and keen 
intellectual powers ; or whether with a more confiding 
alacrity, which is the experience of most Christians, 
James u 6 chosen the poor of this world 

rich in faith,”) he has obeyed the Gospel at 
once, the life-giving efficacy is the same. To as many 
John i 12 received him to them gave He power to be- 
come the sons of God. The question is "one 
of obedience or of disobedience. “ The mystery of the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ is now according to the com- 
Rom xTi 25 iHandment of the everlasting God made 
26- known to all naitions, for the obedience of 

FAITH.” Obedience is life. “ He that believdth on 
the Son hath everlasting life:” and disobedience is 
death ; for the same Scripture continues, “ he that be- 
John iii. 36 shall not see life, but the 

wrath of God abideth on him.” 


(4) Do you say, is not a trustful knowledge of God 
the Father sufficient ? Scripture answers there is no 
true knowledge of God the Father, except in God the 
Son : for Jesus Christ says, “ I am the way, the truth, 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


193 


and the life ; no man cometli unto the Father 
but by me.” And St. John writes, “ Whoso- Johnxiv. 6. 
ever denieth the Son, the same hath not ijohnu. 23. 
the Father.” And again, “ Whosoever transgresseth 
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath 
not God : he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, 
he hath both the Father and the Son.” 2 John 9. 
Now Scripture has proved to us the co- 
essential Godhead of the Son with the Father: and, 
if once the Holy Spirit convince you of this, you 
will be the first to ask, what can denial of the Son be, 
if to deny his Godhead be not this negation ? With 
your keen sense of honor, you will be the first to ac- 
knowledge that such denial destroys the glory of his 
Person ; tears the crown from his brow ; empties the 
atonement of its virtue ; and, however undesignedly, 
charges the church of Christ with idolatry, and the 
word of God with equivocation and untruthfulness. 
For he who denies the Deity of our Lord “ believeth 
not the record that God hath given of his uo^nv 10. 
Son.” There are indeed many, who profess- 
edly believing the Divinity of the Son of God, by their 
works deny him : theirs, perhaps, is an aggravated 
guilt ; — but those who professedly disbelieve his di- 
vinity, seeing that such unbelief extracts all saving 
efficacy from his work, are rejecting the only name 
under heaven given among men whereby Acts iv. 12. 
we must be saved. 

Farther do you say, God is love, and will not visit 
with eternal condemnation the creatures of his hand ? 
My friends, you are making to yourselves a God of 
your own imagination, a God of mercy and compas- 
sion only, but without holy jealousy and righteousness. 

9 


194 


THE EOCK OF AGES. 


Such an one is not the God of creation, or of provi- 
dence, or of the Bible. He is not the God of creation, 
for even there, amid the abounding evidence of his 
goodness, there are things which tell of his severity ; 
there is not only the sunshine, and the summer, and the 
dew, and the calm, — hut also the terrible darkness, 
and the wintry blast, and the storm, and the volcano. 
Such an one is not the God of permissive providence : 
for there is not only the happy home, and prattling 
childhood, and the mart of peaceful merchandise, and 
the honorable senate, — but also the chamber of suf- 
fering, and the creeping infirmities of age, and the wail 
of oppression, and the battle-field strewn with corpses. 
Nor is such an one the God of the Bible : God is love 
indeed — but love embraces all his attributes, not mercy 
only, but righteousness hkewise : ‘‘ for love is strong as 
Song viii. 6. death, jealousy is hard as the grave, the coals 
See margin, thereof are coals of fire which hath a most 
vehement flame.” Oh, surely not in vain was the cry 
Mat. iii 7 Gospel herald, “ Flee from the wrath 

to come.” Not in vain the warning of Jesus 
Christ, “If ye believe not that I am He^ ye shall die 
John Tin. 24 . ^ youT sins.” Not in vain the awakening 
question of St. Peter, “ What shall the end be 
1 Pet. iv. 17. of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? ” 
It is so often asserted that the inflexible righteous- 
ness manifested under the old dispensation as in the 
deluge, in the destruction of the cities of the plain, in 
the plagues on Egypt, or in the chastisements on Israel, 
has been modified by the “ milder genius 
See Luk3 xvii. of the Gospel ” — though they who make 
Rom. ix. 17. the assertion forget that these cases are ad- 
■ duced as examples in the New Testament, — 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


195 


that I bring before you in the note below * some por- 
tion of the witness of the New Testament to the im- 
mutable justice of God. I fully grant you that now 

* Testimony under the new covenant to the righteous severity of God. 

Mat. iii. 7-12, John Baptist warns to flee from the wrath to come. 

— V. 26-29, .Jesus speaks of the eternal prison, and of the unholy 

being cast into hell. 

— vii. 13, of the broad way leading to destruction ; and ver. 23, of the 

hour when He will say, Depart from me. 

[These last are taken from the sermon on the mount, in which 
the Fatherly character of God shines as a golden thread in- 
terwoven throughout.] 

— viii. 12, the children of the kingdom cast out into outer darkness. 

— X. 15, more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment; and ver. 

28, Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. 
[This last in closest connection with filial trust towards God.] 

— xi. 20-24, the woes on Chorazin. 

— xii. 32, the unpardonable sin. 

— xiii. 41, 42, 49, 50, the judgment of the wicked. 

— xviii. 6-9, the end of those who cause offences. 

— xxi. 44, the stone falling on the disobedient. 

— xxii. 13, the guest expelled into outer darkness. 

— xxiii. the woes on the Pharisees. 

— xxiv. the foretold destruction of Jerusalem, typical of the last judg- 

ment. 

— XXV. 12, the foolish virgins disowned ; ver. 30, the unprofitable ser- 

vant cast out; ver. 41, the sentence upon those on the left 
hand — “ Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels.” 

Mark xvi. 16, after the resurrection, the same inflexible law — “ He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth 
not shall be damned.” 

Luke xii. 46, the unfaithful servant’s end. 

— xiii. 28, a scene of future remorse sketched, which the prescient 

Christ only could sketch. 

xvi. 22, 23, “ the rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he 

lift up his eyes being in torments.” 

— xvii. 26-30, the deluge and the destruction of Sodom, types of the 

end of the wicked at the second Advent. 

John iii. 18, the unbeliever condemned already ; and ver. 36, the wrath 
of God abideth on him. 

— V. 29, the resurrection of damnation. 

— viii. 24, ye shall die in your sins. 


196 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


God is withholding his judgments, it is the day of grace, 
it is the time of love, the goodness of God leadeth us 
to repentance : but the season is limited, and when once 
T V ••• oc the master of the house has risen up and 

Luke xm. 25. x 

has shut to the door, then the last hour 


Acts iii. 23, the disobedient soul destroyed. 

— V. 1-11, the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira. 

— xiii. 40-41, see the peroration of St. Paul’s sermon at Antioch: 

— xxviii. 25-27, and of his address to the Jews. 

Rom. i. 18, the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness. 

— ii. 4-11, wrath treasured up against the day of wrath; — 

indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, rendered to 
every evil-doer. 

— vi. 23, the wages of sin is death. 

— xii. 19, vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord. 

1 Cor. iii. 17, if any man, &c. him shall God destroy. 

— vi. 9, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

— xvi. 22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be 

Anathema Maranatha. 

2 Cor. ii. 16, to them that perish we are the savour of death unto death. 

— iv. 3, the Gospel hid in them that are lost. 

Gal. i. 8, the solemn anathema on those who pervert the Gospel. 

— vi. 8, he that soweth to his flesh .... reaping corruption. 

Eph. ii. 3, we were children of wrath. ' 

Phil. iii. 18, 19, I tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of 
the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. 

2 Thess. i. 7-9, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming 
Are, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus CHVist; who shall be 
punished with an everlasting destruction .... 

— ii. 12, that they all might be damned which believed not the 

truth, &c. 

Heb. ii. 3, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? 

— X. 27-31, a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 

indignation which shall devour the adversaries 

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

— xii. 29, for our God is a consuming fire. 

James ii. 10, whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet oflfend in 
one point, he is guilty of all. 

1 Pet. ii. 8, [Jesus Christ] a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, 
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, 
whereunto also they were appointed. 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


197 


of pardoning mercy will have passed away, and He 
whose name is love declares, “ Then shall ye call upon 
me hut I will not answer, ye shall seek me . 
early but ye shall not find- me.” But if Jesus 
wept, when foretelling the judgments on Jerusalem, 
well may the heart of a poor pardoned sinner bleed, to 
'gather such cumulative proof of his holy indignation. 
So terrible is the evidence that, like Moses at 
Sinai, “ I exceedingly fear and quake.” If it 
were only one isolated passage, you might urge it was 
figurative language ; but here it is written in history, 
prophecy, sermon, epistle, vision, — all alike proving 
that our God is a consuming fire, and that of the ene- 
mies of the cross the end is destruction. I repeat, you 
may conceive a God of compassion only, and fall down 
and worship him, but such an one is not the righteous 


1 Pet. iv. 17, 18, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel 

of God? .... where shall the ungodly and the sinner ap- 
pear? 

2 Pet. ii. 17, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 

— iii. 7, the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 

1 John V. 19, the whole world lieth in wickedness. 

Jude 14, 15, the Lord cometh ... to execute judgment. 

Rev. vi. 16, hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb. 

— xix. 3, her smoke rose up for ever and ever. 

— xix. 15, and out of his mouth goeth forth a sharp sword, that with 

it he should smite the nations : and he shall rule them with a 
rod of iron, and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness 
and wrath of Almighty God. 

— XX. 15, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was 

cast into the lake of fire. 

— xxi. 8, but the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 

murderers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall 
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
stone, which is the second death .... 
xxii. 11, he that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy 

— let him be filthy still ! 


198 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


Judge of all the earth : and you may beautify the 
name of the Father whom you adore with every trait 
of benevolence, and tenderness, and grace, but it is not 
the name of the one living and true God, for that is 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. 

God forbid that I should write with anything of bit- 
terness or pride. I feel far too deeply for that. You 
will not accuse me of it. Shipwrecked in one common 
fall with us, you have adopted principles of your own, 
and staked your immortality of weal or woe upon them. 
We have embarked upon that we know to be the only 
true life-boat : and with all the importunity of affection, 
those kindlings of common humanity which bind us 
together, we cry to you — “ friends, that raft of your 
own construction cannot survive the tempest. Come 
with us. Yet there is room. Yet there is time. Our 
life-boat cannot sink. Our pilot knows the port.” 

Let us recur to our position before God, as sketched 
from Scripture in the opening of this treatise. The 
Bible represented us as guilty, strengthless, and in 
darkness. Whatever moral excellencies may adorn us 
in the sight of man ; philanthropy, generosity, tender- 
ness, integrity ; — still the penetrating law, the law of 
perfect love, reveals innumerable violations of our 
nearest and noblest duties. W e are sinners : and as 
sinners, exposed to all this righteous wrath in the day 
of wrath. 

Once realize this, and our false peace is broken up 
for ever. Our earthly gayety is gone. Life, without 
our Father’s smile, is not worth the living. It is to 
flit through a mazy labyrinth of pain and pleasure, to 
foster affections which must wither to their roots, and 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


199 


to cherish hopes which must expire one by one. The 
irrepressible question rises again to our bps, What must 
I do to be saved ? Where shall we find a hiding-place ? 
“ The name of the Lord is a strong tower, p^^v. xyiu. 
the righteous runneth into it and is safe.” 

What is his name? — the same that Moses heard in 
the clift of the rock — “ The Lord, The Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in 
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for- 
giving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by 
no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s 
children, unto the third and unto the fourth g 

generation.” 7- 

How then can He clear us, the guilty ? For “ we 
are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses 
are as filthy rags ; and we all do fade as a leaf ; and 
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us 

’ ’ Isai. Ixiv. 6. 

away. 

May the Lord of his sovereign mercy impress his 
own reply on my heart and on yours, by the power of 
the Holy Ghost: — 

Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 
who are under the law ; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the 
world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law 
there shall be no flesh justifled in his sight ; for by the law is the knowl- 
edge of sin. 

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being 
witnessed by the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of God, 
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe: 
for there is no difference ; 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justifled 
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, 


200 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness : 
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 
— Rom. iii. 19-26. 


Rom. V. 6. 

1 Pet. m. 18. 


Lev. xvii. 11. 


1 John i. 7. 


How blessed, how divine a salvation ! Another has 
offered an atoning sacrifice for our sins ; another im- 
parts his righteousness to all who believe. The claims 
of the law are satisfied ; for a Victim of infinite worth 
has satisfied them. Emmanuel, God with us, is surety 
for us. Christ died for the ungodly, the Just 
for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. 
It is the blood which maketh an atonement 
for the soul : not the blood of bulls and of 
goats, but the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin. And now God in 
Christ reconciles the world unto himself ; not imputing 
their trespasses unto them. And we are ambassadors 
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we 
pray you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God ; for 
He hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, 
that we might be made the righteousness of 
God in him. O unexampled love ! The 
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the 
world. God the Father loving us with ever- 
lasting love : God the Son incarnate, crucified, risen, 
glorified, interceding : Here “ Mercy and truth have 
met together, righteousness and peace have 

Ps. ixxxv. 10. other.” 

But once more : “ Jesus says. 


2 Cor. V. 19 
21 . 


1 John iv. 14. 


No 


one can come 


John vi. 44. 


unto me except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him.” And yet again : “No one 
cometh unto the Father but by me.” It is a circle of 
light and love. We go round about it. How are we 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


201 


to enter it ? Jesus answers, “ When the Comforter is 
come, whom I will send unto you from the 
Father, He shall testify of me. . . He will 
guide you unto all truth. . . He shall receive 
of mine and shall shew it unto you.” Here 
is the power of entrance. That which is bom of the 
Spirit is spirit. 

O blessed new-born soul ! washed in the blood of 
Christ, clothed in his spotless goodness, drawn by his 
quickening Spirit, it is brought to the footstool of the 
throne of paternal love. It lives. It loves. All the 
affections gush forth from a well of water springing up 
into everlasting life. The Trinity in Unity is no longer 
an abstract doctrine alone, but it interpenetrates our 
spiritual being. The Father and the Son have come 
unto us, and in the communion of the Spirit 
make their abode with us : and thus dwelling 
in love we dwell in God, for God is dove, 

(5) God is love. Many, from these words alone, 
have argued the necessity of a coeternal and a coequal 
plurality in unity, as a deduction from that absolute 
perfection of the Divine nature which requires every 
possible excellence : coetemal ; — for love implies, at 
least, that there be One who loves, and One who being 
loved reciprocates that love ; and, therefore, if the Son 
were not from everlasting (as the Father himself), the 
first and the last, the beginning and the ending ; then 
before the creation of our world, or of any worlds, 
through the receding cycles of a past eternity, they 
have contended that “ the Divine mind would have 
stood in an immense solitariness,” without reciprocity 
of affection, and without communion of intellectual 


202 . 


THE KOCK OF AGES. 


enjoyment: and coequal; — for love in its perfection 
requires similarity and indeed equality of nature, (as 
God records of Adam in Paradise, there was 
Gen. 11 . 20. found an help meet for him,) and, there- 

fore, whatever you take away from either the one who 
loves or the one who is loved, however you disparage 
either in comparison of the other, you so far destroy 
the propriety and completeness of the definition “ Qod 
is Love.’^ * 

* See Alford’s sermons on Divine Love: and P. Smith’s Testimony. 
Appendix III : from which some of the clauses in above paragraph are 
taken. 

The following beautiful extracts from a German treatise, by Sartorius, 
have been translated and sent me by a friend. 

“ That which is asserted in theological compendiums with abstract and 
often negative precision of the Being and attributes of God, is gathered 
together in a living, comprehensive, and fertile idea in that great dictum 
of the apostle, God is love. This saying of the Holy Spirit comes from 
the depths of the Godhead. It is the Divine axiom beyond which we 
cannot fathom, and from which all flows ; the first principle of our science, 
as well as the basis of our life. The first article of our creed expresses 
this: God the Father is equal to God in love.” 

[He then contrasts the true opposites 1 and thou, with the false opposites 
of some modern philosophy, I and not 7.] 

“Love presupposes consciousness — personality: in the true sense we 
cannot love a thing; only persons can love or truly be loved. In the 
higher Divine sense, love is the unity or union of two distinct personali- 
ties. And this in the highest sense the Triune God is, the Father, the 

Son, and the Holy Spirit of Love ‘ God is love : ’ — whatever 

we may say of God’s spiritual, infinite, eternal Being, of his all-might and 
all-wisdom ; of his holiness, justice, and truth ; of his glory and blessed- 
ness; is it not all gathered up in the idea of absolute love? How little is 
said in asserting that God is a Spirit, if his mere negative immateriality 
and invisibility are meant: or when thinking and willing are ascribed to 
him, without any character to determine the quality of this thinking and 
willing. Love is spirit, is light, and life; is conscious, personal life, not 
merely subjectively absorbed in itself, but expanding, and manifesting, 
and objectively communicating itself ; filling all with itself, and gathering 
all unto itself. Infinite and eternal are mere negative abstractions, if they 
are not contemplated as filled with lovq, whose nature it is to have no 
limits, and ‘ never to fail.’ 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


203 


But leaving this most profound mystery and taking 
with you those living truths which are necessary to our 
salvation, I pray you now to return to the study of the 
sacred volume. You will look vainly for any formal 
creed ; but what is infinitely more valuable to the 
earnest student and the docile believer, you will find 
the threefold and yet united work of the ever blessed 
God, — Father, Son, and Spirit, — on our behalf. 

If we ask. Whence came I, and to whom do I be- 
long ? the Bible answers we are the creatures of God 
the Father, of whom are all things ; of God the Son, 
by whom all things were made ; of God the Spirit, who 
gave us life : of these Three who are One in essence, 
and who in unity of counsel determined, “ Let 

, . . „ Gen. i. 26. 

US make man m our image. 

If, feeling our low and lost estate, we cty What must 
I do to be saved ? Jesus answers, “ Ye must be born 
again. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. — 
For God so loved the world that He gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on John m. 6- 
him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 

If now craving that new birth we begin to long for 
that Spirit with indescribable desire, our Lord assures 


“ Holiness, what is it but holy love, which only wills the holy and the 
good, (the Godlike,) and abhors the evil, (ungodly,) because it brings 
ruin ? And righteousness, what is it but the order, the law of love, and 
its execution? God is love, not only as Creator and Preserver of the 
world, but in himself, from eternity, eternal love in person, and surely in 
more than One Person ; for love consists in the unity of [at least] two 
persons. The subject of love is not conceivable without the object, nor 
personal love without a personal object ; without which it would be but 
self-seeking. The / must have a Thou; the eternal I an eternal Thm; 
eternal love an eternal object.” 

I give the above fragments for their intrinsic worth, without pledging 
myself to all the sentiments of an essay which I have not read. 


204 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


US, “ I will pray the Father ; and He shall give you 
another Comforter, that He may abide with 

Johaxiv. 16. . „ ’ 

you for ever. 

If we ask how this, so great a salvation, was accom- 
plished, the apostle replies, “ Christ, through the Eter- 
nal Spirit, offered himself, without spot, to God ; ” and 
thus “his blood purges our conscience from 
dead works to serve the living and true God.” 

If we draw nigh to that great High Priest, crying, 
Lord, save me or I perish ! He answers, “ The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath 
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the weak. 
He hath sent me to hind up the broken-hearted ; to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound, to proclaim 
the Acceptable year of the Lord.” 

If we turn to the pages of the gospel histories, and 
humbly ask for some manifestation of this stupendous 
mystery, we read — “Jesus being baptized and praying, 
the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended 
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice 

came from heaven which said. Thou art my 
Luke m. 22 . j pleased.” 

If, as we ponder the threefold benediction pronounced 
on the worshipping Israelites, — “ The Lord bless thee 
and keep thee : the Lord make his face shine upon thee, 
and be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift up his counte- 
Numbers vi upou thee, and give thee peace : ” — 

23-27. and observe how this threefold blessing mys- 
teriously coalesced in one covenant name, for it is 
added, “ They shall put my name upon them, and I 
will bless them : ” if, pondering these things, we cry. 
Bless me, even me also, O my Father ! we shall hear a 


THE ROCK OP AGES. 


205 


still small voice saying to us, The blessings of that 
name into which you were baptized be yours in deed 
and in truth, and in the power of spiritual life, “ the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holv 
Ghost.” 

If, emboldened, we would now interpret this more 
plainly, the doctrine drops as the rain, and distils as the 
dew, in the benediction of the new covenant. ‘‘ The 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be gcor. xiu i4. 
with you. Amen.” 

W e betake ourselves to prayer ; how easy the new 
and living way : “ Through Jesus we have 

1 o • • r 1 »» A 1 Eph. ii. 18. 

access by one Spirit unto the r ather. And 
while kneeling at the throne of grace how deep the fel- 
lowship : “ The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit 
that we are the children of God, and if children then 
heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with jg 

Christ.” ■ 

Now we see that all things are ours, who are “ elect 
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 
through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience 
and sprinkhng of the blood of Jesus Christ;” ipet. l 2. 
for what, in the confidence of faith we ask, 
shall separate us from the love of “ God, who hath 
from the beginning chosen us to salvation through 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, 

to the obtaining of the glory of our 2 Thess. a. 

Lord Jesus Christ ? ” 

This assurance of faith is no idle self-confidence, for 
we hear the apostle’s earnest entreaty : “ But ye, be- 
loved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, 
praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the 


206 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


Jude 20 21 l<>oking for the mercy of our 

Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” 

And is now the need of our soul irrepressible for 
suitable language in which to express the adoring grati- 
tude of our hearts, let us fall low on our faces with the 
veiled seraphim, and cry, “ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord 
, . . „ „ God of hosts : the whole earth is full of thy 
glory. Glory to thee, O Lord Most High.” 
Yes, the pure white light which fills the firmament of 
heaven, and imbues the clouds with brightness, and 
paints the inimitable beauty of every color which de- 
lights us, is only a faint emblem of that glorious name, 
— the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost, — which alone can penetrate the depths of 
the human heart ; which alone irradiates the mysteries 
of time and the darkness of the shadow of death ; 

and which has spanned the throne of the 

Eze. i. 28. , 

Eternal with the emerald rainbow of ever- 

Rev. iv. 3. 1 . • 

lasting peace. 


And here I must close. At the beginning of this 
essay I ventured to allude to past personal conflicts. 
My faith was sorely tried ; and I often thought, as 
many others have done, that Satan exhausted his quiver 
on my battered shield. But unutterably painful as 
those days of struggle were to me, I should number 
them among the most golden of my life, if they taught 
me to remove one obstacle from the path of those who 
are feeling after Jesus, my Saviour and my God. I 
was at times constrained to cry in bitterness of soul, 
“ All thy billows are gone over me,” though an unseen 
hand kept me clinging to him who was my life, like 
the limpet to the rock, buffeted by every wave of the 


THE ROCK OF AGES. 


207 


fretting sea. But gladly shall I have suffered the 
tempest, if God may enable me thereby to stretch forth 
a helping hand to those who are sinking in the deep 
waters, until their feet are planted on the Rock of Ages. 
Then shall we shortly stand together in his presence, 
where is fulness of joy, and cast our crowns before him 
on whose head are many crowns, and sing the everlast- 
ing song, “ Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 
and priests unto God and his Father, to him he glory 
and dominion for ever and ever.” The Lord, of his 
infinite mercy, grant this by the power of the Holy 
Ghost, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen and Amen. 


THE END. 





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SCKIPTURE INDEX. 


To have tabulated all the verses quoted in the Essay, would have made 
this Index far too voluminous. I have therefore only noted those passages 
more particularly discussed or illustrated. These however will I hope, 
with the full summary of the argument given in the table of Contents, 
afford a sufScient clue to the rest. 


PAGE 

Genesis i. 1 Elohim created (note) 174 

— — 26 Let us make 174, 203 

— iii. 15 The seed of the woman 68, 125 

— vi. 3 My Spirit 166 

— xxxii. 30. . . .1 have seen God face to face 79 

Exodus xxxiii. 20. . .Thou canst not see my face 79 

— xxxiv. 6, 7. .The name of the Lord 199 

— — 14. . .Whose name is Jealous 48 

Leviticus xvii. 11.. . .It is the blood 200 

Numbers vi. 23-27.. The Lord bless thee 204 

— xi. 17 Take of the Spirit 150 

Deut. vi. 4, 5 Jehovah our Elohim 102, (note) 175, 184, 186 

— XXX. 20 He is thy life 183 

— xxxiii. 27. . . . The Eternal God thy refuge 180 

Judges vi. 24 Jehovah-shalom 81 

2 Samuel xxiii, 2 The Spirit of the Lord 167 

Nehemiah ix. 5-7 51, 70 

— — 27 Saviours who saved them 136, 142 

Job xxxiii. 12, 14 He giveth not account 187 

Psalm ii. 2-12 69, 125 

— xviii. 2 My God my strength 184 

— xlix. 7, 8, 15.. .None can redeem, &c 47 

— xc. 1-6 Thou hast been our dwelling 46 

— xcv. 6-9 Let us worship, &c 162 

• — cx. 1-7 125 


210 


SCKIPTURE INDEX, 


Psalm cxxxvi. 1-4. . .Jehovah alone doeth great wonders 168 

— cxxxix, 7 , 8 . . Go from thy Spirit 157 

Isaiah i. 2 1 have nourished 40 

— vi. 6 Mine eyes have seen 80,99 

— — 8 161, (note) 174 

— vii 14 69 

— viii. 13, 14 A stone of stumbling 99 

— ix. 6 59, 125 

— xi. 2-4 The Spirit of Jehovah 125, (note) 148 

— XXV. 8 He will swallow up death 73 

— xxxi. 1-6 Men and not God 47 

— xxxii. 2 A man shall be a covert 75 

— xl. 3 Prepare ye the way of Jehovah 98 

— — 12-14 Who hath directed the Spirit 158, 180 

— xlii. 8 My glory will I not 50 

— xlv. 15 A God that hidest thyself. 38 

— — 19 1 said not seek me in vain 38 

— — 21-25 43, 74, 99 

— xlviii. 16.. The Lord God and his Spirit sent me 118 

— li. 12-15 1 even I, &c 47 

— liii. 1-12 60, 61, 125, 129 

— liv. 5 Thy Maker is thy husband 76, (note) 174 

— Ivii. 15 The high and lofty One 185 

— Ixi. 1 The Spirit of the Lord on me (note) 149, 204 

— Ixiii. 10-14 .... They vexed his Holy Spirit 167 

Jeremiah xvii. 6-8... Cursed be the man, &c 50, 112 

— xxiii. 6, The Lord our righteousness 59, 74 

Ezekiel i. 26-28 59, 81, 206 

— XX. 11, 21 My statutes 40 

— xxxvii. 9-14. Come, 0 breath 161 

Daniel ix. 24-26 Messiah '. 69 

Hosea xii. 3, 4 Power with God 79, 81 

Micah V. 2 From everlasting 53, 68, 180 

Haggai ii. 7 The desire of all nations 59 

Zech. iii. 9, & iv. 10. .Seven eyes (note) 149 

— xii. 10 He whom they pierced. 99 

— xiii. 7 My fellow 125 

— xiv. 9 . One Lord 102 

Malachi iv. 2 The sun of righteousness 59 

Matthew iii. 3 Prepare ye the way 98 

— iv. 6. ....... .It is written 36 

— — 10., Thou shalt worship 91 

— V. 26, 29 (note) 195 

— — 48 Be perfect even as 138 

— vii. 13, 23 (note) 196 

— viii. 2 Lord, if thou wUt 84 


SCRIPTURE INDEX. 


211 


PAGE 

Matthew viii. 25 Lord save us 86 

— ix. 18 Come and lay thy hand 84 

— xi. 27 He to whom the Son 65, 135, 139 

— xii. 32 Speaketh against the Holy Ghost 155 

— xiv. 33 Of a truth thou art 84 

— XV. 25 Lord help me 84 

— xviii. 20 Where two or three 53 

— — 26 And worshipped him 83 

— xix. 16, 17. . .None good but One 65, 127 

— — 26 With God all things possible 138 

— XX. 23 Not mine to give except 128 

— xxi. 9 HRsanna in the highest 86 

— — 44 Whosoever shall fall 134 

— xxii. 37, 39. .Thou shalt love 40 

— xxviii. 19, 20. Go ye and disciple (note) 54, 91, 148, 162, 181 

Mark ix. 23 All things possible 138 

— xiii. 32 Neither the Son, 126 

Luke ii. 40-52 Childhood of Jesus 121,126 

— iii. 21, 22 The heaven was opened, &c 147, 204 

— X. 16 He that heareth you 136, 141 

John i. 1-18 53, 66, 73, 106, 107, 142 

— ii. 19 1 will raise it up 129 

— iii. 6-16 Ye must be born again 62, 129, 203 

— — 36 He that believeth 192 

— iv. 10 Thou wouldst have asked 85 

— V. 17-29 65, 107, 126, 142 

— — 30 1 can of myself do nothing 124 

— vi. 38 Not my own will 53, 124,128 

— viii. 17 The testimony of two 52 

— — 38 Before Abraham was I am 53 

— X. 14,15 The good Shepherd 55,76, 126 

17 No one taketh it 129 

— — 30 1 and my Father are One 140 

— — 35 He called them gods 137,142 

— xii. 41 Saw his glory and spake 80,99 

— xiv. 1 Believe in God, believe in me 62 

— — 6 1 am the way 193,201 

— — 9 He that hath seen me 141 

— — 10 My Father doeth the works 124 

— — 10 The Father in me 131 

— 12 Greater works than these 136 

— — 16 1 will pray the Father 204 

— — 21,23 We will come, &c 92 

28. My Father is greater than 1 124, 127 

— XV. 9 So have I loved you 135, 139 

15-. All made known to you 136, 142 


212 


SCEIPTURE INDEX, 


PAGE 

John xvi. 13 He the Spirit 154 

— xvii. 3 To know thee and Jesus Christ. ... 37, 92, 123, 140 

— — 22 That they may be one 135,140 

— — 24 Father, I will 126 

— xix. 37 Him whom they pierced 99 

— XX. 28 My Lord, and my God 108 

— xxi. 17 Lord, thou knowest all things 55, 126, 181 

Acts ii. 3 Cloven tongues of fire 148 

— — 24 Whom God raised up 129 

— V. 3, 9 Lie to the Holy Ghost 168 

— vii. 55-60 Stephen’s martyrdom 86 

— ix. 14, 21 All that call on thy name 87 

— — 34 Jesus Christ maketh thee whole 129 

— X. 19,20 The Spirit said. Arise, go (note) 168 

— — 25, 26 Stand up, I myself. 83 

— — 36 Lord of all 70, 102 

— — 38 Holy Ghost and with power (note) 165 

— xiii. 2-4 The Holy Ghost said, separate 163 

— xvi. 31 Believe in the Lord Jesus 65 

— xvii. 27, 28 He is not far 181 

— xxi. 14 The will of the Lord 182 

— xxviii. 25 Well spake the Holy Ghost 161, 167 

Romans i. 7, &c Grace and peace from 94 

— ii. 4-6 Wrath in the day of wrath 41, (note) 196 

— iii. 19-26 199, 200 

— viii. 16 The Spirit with our spirit 170, 205 

— — 14-29 First-born among many brethren 135, 140 

— ix. 5 Who is over all God blessed 108 

— xiv. 10-12. . .We shall all stand 99 

— XV. 16 Sanctified by the Holy Ghost 183 

— — 30 The love of the Spirit 152 

— xvi. 25, 26. . .The obedience of faith . 192 

1 Corinthians i. 2 All that call upon the name of Jesus 87 

— i. 2 Sanctified in Christ Jesus 183 

— ii. 1-3 Nothing but Jesus Christ 63 

— — 10 The Spirit searcheth 157 

— — 12, 13 Comparing spiritual things 68, 172 

— iii. 23 Christ is God’s 131 

— viii. 6 One Lord 102,130 

— xi. 3 The head of Christ is God 131 

— xii. 11 All these worketh 151 

— xiii. 12 Know even as I am known 136, 141 

— XV. 24-28. . .Then cometh the end 131 

2 Corinthians iii. 17. . .The Lord is that Spirit 169 

— iii. 18 The same image 135, 139 

— xiii. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus 95, 148, 205 


SCRIPTURE INDEX, 


213 


Galatians i. 1 Paul, an apostle 

Ephesians i. 1-7 

— i. 17-23 

— ii. 18 Through him access 

— iii. 8, 19 Unsearchable riches, &c 

— — 19 All the fulness of God 

— iv. 5 One Lord 

— — 8 He led captivity captive 

— V. 5 The kingdom of Christ and God. . . 

— — 25 Christ gave himself 

Philippians ii. 9-11. . .In the name of Jesus 

Colossians i. 15 The first-born of all creation 

— i. 16-18 By him were all 

— ii. 9 In him dwelleth 

— iii. 11 Christ is all and in all 

— — 13 Christ forgave you 

1 Thess. i. 1 The church in God, &c 

— iii. 11 Now God himself 

— — 13 The Lord make you 

2 Thess. i. 7, 8 Taking vengeance 

— ii. 13, 14 God hath chosen, &c 

— — 16, 17 Now our Lord Jesus 

— iii. 5 The Lord direct 

1 Timothy ii. 5, 6. . . . One God and One Mediator 

Titus ii. 11-13 Appearing of our great God 

Hebrews i. 1-12 

— iv. 13 Him with whom we have to do. . . . 

— V. 9 The Author of eternal salvation. . , 

— ix. 14 The eternal Spirit 

— xii. 2 Author and finisher of the faith. . , 

James iv. 12 One lawgiver 

— V. 20 Save a soul 

1 Pe;er i. 2 Elect according to 

— — 8, 9 Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable. . 

— ii. 7, 8 A stone of stumbling 

— iv. 17 What shall the end be 

— — 19 To him a faithful Creator 

2 Peter i. 1 The righteousness of our God, &c, 

— — 4 Partakers of a divine nature 

— — 11 The everlasting kingdom 

— iii. 18 Doxolog}' to Christ 

1 John i. 3 Truly our fellowship 

— iv. 8-16 God is love 

— V. 10 Believeth not the record 

— — 20 This is the true God 

2 John 9 Whosoever transgresseth 


PAGE 

93 

63, 64 

, . . 129, 144-145 

205 

55, 69 

137, 143 

102 

129 

109 

129 

74, 88 

. . . . (note) 130 
. 54, 56, 70, 131 

108, 143 

77,131 

129 

94 

87 

163 

. 71, (note) 196 

205 

87 

163 

123 

73, 109 

54,’ 103-104, 131 

181 

72 

157,204 

124 

185 

136, 142 

148,205 

77 

98, 99 

194 

180 

109 

135, 140 

* 131 

78, 89 

92 

201, (note) 202 

193 

71, no 

193 


214 


SCRIPTURE INDEX, 


Jude 1 

~ 20 , 21 . 
Rev. i. 4. . . . 

5,6. 

8 ... 

8-18, 

— ii. 23... 

— iii. 14.. 
21 ... 

— iv. 6. . . 


8 

— V. 6 

8-14..., 

— XV. 4 

— xix. 16. . . , 

— xxi. 22, 23 

— xxii. 1. . . . , 

8 


PAGE 

.Sanctified by God the Father 183 

.Ye beloved, building 205, 206 

Seven spirits 149 

, Unto him that loved us 89 

I am the Almighty 55 

The first and the last, &c 53, 69, 175, 180 

I am He who searcheth 56, 70 

The beginning of the creation of God. . , (note) 131 

Will I grant to sit 128, 136, 141 

.Living creatures in the midst of the throne 

(note) 164 

.Holy, Holy, Holy 166 

Seven spirits 132, (note) 149, 166 

The worship of heaven 89, 90, 96 

Thou only art holy 182 

King of kings and Lord of lords 70 

The Lord God and the Lamb. 96 

,A pure river 132 

.1 fell down to worship 83 









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